Action was delayed on some of the more controversial items on Asheville City Council’s agenda last night.
- Council postponed until April 12 a decision on whether or not to operate multiple early voting sites for the upcoming election. They requested more information about how many voted where. I have often objected to the use of the word “strategic” in council’s operating plan, but the word seems to describe the tack taken in this conflict-of-interest vote. It was no surprise the moderates opposed early voting while the progressives wanted it.
- Council postponed until April 26 an ordinance that would require all second-hand dealers to file an electronic Leads Online report for all items sold, within 48 hours of transactions. The current reporting ordinance only applies to pawn brokers, secondary metal recyclers, and precious metal dealers. The new ordinance would require all but a few second-hand dealers to report.
The room was full. Most present would be affected by the ordinance and opposed it. For the most part, these people had not even heard about the proposed ordinance until the day before. The city had held public information meetings, but invited only twenty-eight second-hand dealers. Objections included lack of time, no desire to invest in a computer or online access, no time or funds to hire somebody to do the reporting, and better things to do than fill out a report for everything in a box of a thousand trinkets valued at 60 cents.
Police Chief Bill Hogan said he was trying to control thievery and did not want to impose a hardship on business owners. Primarily, he was trying to get control over “people coming in off the street.” One dealer said if the city wanted to regulate “people coming in off the street,” their ordinance should be written to pertain to “people coming in off the street.” Councilman Cecil Bothwell had legitimate concerns about enforcement. Regulations only apply to those willing to be regulated. People wanting to fence goods will not file full reports. He suggested it would make more sense to have dealers call the police to check Leads Online when offered a suspicious item, than to have them fill out tedious reports after they had paid a thief who was well on his way down the road. Nobody seemed to hear what he said, so he later offered at least limiting the filing ordinance to only pertain to a list of hot items for thieves.
- Council continued until April 14 a discussion of economic development incentives for the Kassinger Development Group. Kassinger requested what would amount to five years of 85% tax breaks for a park and five years of 50% tax breaks for an apartment complex.
Staff had argued against the proposals on the grounds that council’s Transitional Development Incentive policy was in the works. Earlier on the evening’s agenda was consideration of finishing touches for the policy. Brownie Newman, however, presented a point system that he said covered the same bases as what staff had been considering under council direction. The first page was displayed on the overhead projector in small print. He made a motion to adopt it and it was quickly seconded. Jan Davis expressed reservations about voting on an item neither city staff nor the public had had time to analyze. Only Bill Russell voted against the measure. As a result, Kassinger requested time to regroup and make his requests consistent with the new policy.
