City Council faces vote on panhandling, shopping cart ordinances

Las Cruces City Council could vote to modify two ordinances regarding solicitation and approve a new ordinance regarding shopping cart containment and retrieval at its meeting on Monday.

Las Cruces Police Department Police Chief Jeremy Story presented the proposals during a work session in April, saying the city could improve public safety, blight and quality of life for residents.

Members of the public have expressed broad support of the proposed ordinances while others have expressed concern that the proposals would lead to criminalizing the unhoused, potentially making permanent housing seem even further away with a criminal record.

"Homelessness is a crisis that calls for community efforts and creative solutions, not rhetorical and legal villainization," Executive Director of Mesilla Valley Community of Hope Nicole Martinez wrote in a Sun-News editorial . "Instead of reactively punishing the poor in an attempt to remove them from view, we urge the City of Las Cruces to further invest in innovative solutions to address homelessness."

More: New Mexico Governor holds standing room only public safety town hall in Las Cruces

In the two months since the work session, state Legislators didn't take up any of Gov. Michell Lujan Grisham's special session agenda items in July, including a bill that would have made it unlawful for pedestrians to cross major highways or walk in the road, but it would also make it illegal to "access, use, occupy, congregate or assemble on a median of a highway with a posted limit of thirty miles per hour or greater..."

The proposed bill included language that said New Mexico has had the nation's highest rate of pedestrian fatalities per capita, according to the Governor's office.

"I haven't seen the latest drafts on the panhandling ordinances that were so roundly rejected by the Legislature," District 5 Councilor Becky Corran said. "A very similar bill was one of the Governor's proposals and the Legislature did not take it up at all.

"We did get a bunch of pedestrian data and as far as I can tell, none of the fatalities were panhandlers."

The solicitation ordinances already exist in the Las Cruces municipal code. In May, Story said the changes were minor in nature and made to remove potentially unconstitutional language or to narrow the interest to public safety. Story said the changes should allow both ordinances to be enforceable.

In 2018, the city revised some of its panhandling ordinances in response to objections from the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court indirectly affirmed free speech protections for panhandlers when it ruled a sign ordinance in an Arizona town violated the First Amendment because it restricted the content of speech on signs. In 2018, the City suspended enforcement of its ordinances until they could be revised to comply with free speech protections. City Council voted to revise two ordinances related to panhandling.

When asked if the Legislature electing to ignore the Governor's proposal should give the city reason to pause, Mayor Eric Enriquez said the city had already been working on the issue.

"It was good see what may happen during the special session," Enriquez said. "It is something that not only the state, but Las Cruces is doing.

"We are looking for common ground and to make the city safer and help individuals who are either unhoused or in the streets."

However, the shopping cart ordinance is a new proposal.

During the work session, Story repeatedly stated that members of the unhoused population would not be arrested for possessing a shopping cart. Their property would not be discarded. The goal, he said, is to help businesses, while having services in place to address mental illness or drug addiction, as well as a diversion court established to prevent repeat offenders and incarceration.

"My understanding is there is no plan for what to do with people's stuff," Corran said. "I don't think there is a plan for that. My other question is if you take their cart and they are issued a citation or go to municipal court, the (outreach court) is not functioning. When does that get set up. It's unclear where it is we are diverting people to. If they have questions to that, maybe I could be persuaded on the day of."

Enriquez admitted that infrastructure is still needed, but there are already enough elements in place.

According to the draft ordinance, violations for individuals who remove a shopping cart from a business could result in a petty misdemeanor, between $100 and $500 in fines depending on number of violations within the same year. But in lieu of jail time, "the sentencing judge may order that the person perform community service, which by definition includes, but is not limited to, counseling and/or treatment for substance use disorders and/or mental health treatment."

"People are feeling unsafe," Enriquez said. "We are not putting people aside. We are getting them off the streets and trying to help their lives. As long as they are out there, we are not doing anything for them and helping them cope with issues they may be having."

The City appointed attorney James DeRossit as Municipal Judge II and has added a case worker and staff as the city looks to establish an "outreach" court in Municipal Court. Enriquez said the city has hired an attorney, but has not yet assigned a prosecutor to outreach court and that a public defender has not yet been hired, but the position has been posted. Enriquez said the City wants to partner with organizations that offer substance abuse and mental health services such as Peak Behavioral Health and La Clinica de Familia.

The City has added $300,000 for the Community of Hope outreach budget along with purchasing a truck for the Mano y Mano Day Labor program and $200,000 to the municipal court budget.

The ordinance also sets up several requirements for businesses that use shopping carts. Businesses would be required to affix a sign/placard to carts and submit a shopping cart plan approved by community development that is to be renewed every two years. Businesses can also apply for an exemption if they already take certain measures against the theft of carts from their premises. Businesses would have three business days to retrieve shopping carts if notified by the city.

"I like all of the things that we have going with housing and treatment," Enriquez said.

"We still need providers and infrastructure and if we need to add more resources to that, that is the direction we have to go. We need more housing. We have housing coming, but it's not fast enough and I understand that. It's going to be one at a time. We have municipal court, ordinances, treatment and housing. I think we have enough to move forward."

Jason Groves can be reached at 575-541-5459 or jgroves@lcsun-news.com. Follow him on X @jpgroves.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: City Council faces vote on panhandling, shopping cart ordinances