Council inclined to crack down on beggars

Are beggars wearing out their welcome in Kalispell?

Some people say yes. And the Kalispell City Council is moving forward with legislation that would crack down on fraudulent and aggressive panhandling and panhandling in areas that could be deemed a safety risk.

A sample ordinance to start talks on Monday would prohibit panhandling in much of the city unless a person is photographed, fingerprinted and registered for a free permit to panhandle from the police department.

While not sold on the idea of a panhandling permit that some City Council members called ridiculous, Mayor Tammi Fisher said the ordinance would be “a step in the right direction.”

“The issue came to my attention at least from other people in the community asking what we can do. The answer in the past has been not a whole lot,” Fisher said about the beggars often seen at some of Kalispell’s busiest street corners and shopping centers.

“I think this [ordinance] is a fair delineation of the issue we have in our community and a fair way to approach it without being discriminatory in nature,” Fisher said.

The sample ordinance would prohibit panhandlers from soliciting immediate donations of money from people at bus stops and in vehicles, within 20 feet of any street intersection or automated teller machine and on private property unless they have permission to be there.

It also would prohibit panhandlers from making false or misleading statements about their situations or needs; from coming within three feet of a person unless that person indicated a desire to donate; from blocking a person’s path on a sidewalk or street; from using profane, abusive or threatening language; from panhandling in groups; and from panhandling more than five days a year without a permit.

Violations would be a misdemeanor punishable by fines up to $500 and up to six months in jail.

As introduced, the ordinance would not apply to people who are “passively standing or sitting” with a sign indicating they are seeking donations but not actively soliciting people. That’s something Fisher and council member Tim Kluesner said they would like to see tightened up to be as restrictive as possible along roadways.

The ordinance is a work in progress and must be crafted to respect people’s rights to free speech. Legal challenges on those grounds have been filed and won against some cities with sweeping panhandling bans.

“This has been a moving target for a number of years,” City Attorney Charlie Harball said. “Cities have tried to clamp down on this, some of them a little too hard, and unfortunately caused push-back from courts more than we would have liked.”

The sample ordinance could be rewritten to restrict people passively seeking donations along roadways, especially if it is a public safety issue, Harball said. “The only people they are communicating with are in moving cars and that is inviting people to stop. If you can clearly show there is a public safety issue there, then you can regulate that speech.”

At some points, council members shared differing views about the extent to which panhandling is a problem. Council member Randy Kenyon said he has been approached “maybe once” in years, while Mayor Fisher said she seemingly is approached at every intersection she pulls up to. Others shared experiences of seeing panhandlers leaving in nice new vehicles after a day’s work or refusing offers of work or social services.

Council members also wrestled with the idea of a panhandling permit, something that might be scrapped. “I just can’t imagine a panhandler going down and getting a permit from the government,” council member Bob Hafferman said. “That doesn’t seem to jibe with reality. I think that’s ridiculous.”

The idea is to crack down on fraudulent and aggressive panhandlers — the source of most complaints — and still provide people with legitimate needs an outlet to solicit donations, Harball said. He predicted an ordinance of this nature would sharply reduce the number of people seen panhandling in high-traffic areas such as the shopping centers in north Kalispell.

“Many people who come here really are not natives to the area. They like to go into an area where people do know hardship and they’ll work an area until people get tired of it, and when they stop receiving money they’ll move on,” Harball said. “Then you have people who are legitimately having problems and looking for assistance. For whatever reason, if our social systems are not working for them, they would be allowed to solicit funds, but do it in a way that’s subject to regulation.”

Police Chief Roger Nasset estimated about 75 percent of the panhandlers police encounter in Kalispell are illegitimate.

“We’ve been checking into that recently and found quite a few of them to be using some sort of ruse, even one that we noticed was using a wheelchair that wasn’t necessary and that kind of stuff, people saying they were stranded and needed to get out of town when that wasn’t actually the case,” he said. “The ones we’ve checked into, a high propensity are not completely legitimate or are someone who is capable of getting a job and chose not to go down that road.”

Nasset spoke against a panhandling permit and allowing people to panhandle five times a year before one is needed.

“From my perspective, the permit creates an issue because that’s more people coming into the police department and taking up our clerical staff time, which we would have to account for. And if there were a certain number applied to how many times they can panhandle, that does give us the opportunity to stop and talk to them. But really if they have those five times they can panhandle, we have to stop and check them five times to know they’ve come to that limit, so we start really an accounting process of keeping track of these people which could be cumbersome,” he said.

An ordinance is anticipated to be drafted and introduced in July.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.