Citing the need to protect the safety and accessibility of citizens, the Ocean City Council on Tuesday agreed to move forward with a new law to address sleeping and storing personal property in public places.
The ordinance, City Solicitor Heather Stansbury told officials, would strike a balance that protects residents and visitors while allowing public places to remain open.
As presented, the law would prohibit sleeping in or obstructing public places and storing personal property in or on public places. The ordinance also gives law enforcement the authority to move people and belongings and issue warnings and violations.
“We just want compliance,” Stansbury said. “We aren’t looking to arrest anyone.”
In her presentation this week, Stansbury said the council had recently directed staff to evaluate the city’s options for regulating such actions. Working with Ocean City Police Department command staff, she said they crafted an ordinance, which was being presented for consideration this week.
“We’re trying to balance the council duty to protecting the health, safety and welfare while recognizing that we don’t want to go further than we need to with his ordinance,” she said.
Stansbury said the ordinance would address several concerns shared by the council, including the accumulation of trash, human waste and other hazardous materials in public places, and instances of people and property obstructing the public way – including the Boardwalk, sidewalks, transit stations and alleyways.
“We want your residents and visitors to be able to enjoy those items for its regular and ordinary purpose …,” she said.
Don’t look now, but our superiors in Annapolis have a fix for this already in the works! HB0487 “The state budget also includes another mandate: counties must pay 50% of settlements for wrongly incarcerated individuals. For example, the state’s Board of Public Works could agree to pay a big-ticket settlement, and then force Worcester, or any county, to cough up half.”