UPDATE: Council overrode mayor's veto of homeless bill June 3.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell vetoed Bill 6 (2015), CD1, FD1, Relating to Public Sidewalks (“Bill 6”), which he believes will “unlawfully expand the Sit-Lie Laws.” According to Caldwell, Bill 6 goes beyond the intent and purpose of the Sit-Lie Laws because it seeks to:
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impermissibly amend the Sit-Lie Laws by enlarging the original purpose to include areas abutting the public sidewalk, such as unpaved, landscaped or unimproved public property, and by calling such abutting areas an “expanded sidewalk area as an extension of the sidewalk;”
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include areas that are zoned apartment or residential use, which are areas in which commercial and business activities are not permitted;
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further expand the public sidewalk to include landscaped areas of the banks of the Kapalama Canal, which are not intended for pedestrian use, and
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further expand the public sidewalk to areas that may be privately owned.
The fact that the Department of the Corporation Counsel has refused to sign Bill 6 as to form and legality reflects that Bill 6 contains legal deficiencies, thus making it more likely that the bill will be subjected to unnecessary legal challenges and to the payment by the city’s taxpayers of costly attorneys’ fees incurred by plaintiffs. Caldwell said that he is gravely concerned that the passage of Bill 6 may result in a challenge to the legitimacy of the Sit-Lie Laws, which are clearly intended to maintain pedestrian access over sidewalks in business and commercial areas.
The Sit-Lie Laws already identify the areas zoned for commercial and business activities in which the general public most urgently requires use of the sidewalks for pedestrian access for those activities. Those laws are working, but rather than attempting to expand those laws through the approval of Bill 6, Caldwell prefers to focus energies and attention on working together to find, create and provide affordable housing for all of the people of the city, including those less fortunate. The City Council will take up the bill on Wed. June 3.
