Asheville City Council was going to consider three ordinances that would ex pos facto target the Occupy movement. When it was time for council to discuss the matter, Mayor Terry Bellamy indicated there had been a request to have council’s Public Safety Committee review the items first. That was, after all, the way council usually did business. Esther Manheimer added there were constitutional concerns about the proposed ordinances.
Many Occupiers went the few steps from their campsite next to city hall to the meeting. They were disappointed. They wanted to be heard then and there. They felt council was giving them a dose of a runaround orchestrated nationwide by big banks. One told council RBC, Wells Fargo, and First of America needed to be the subjects of review by the Public Safety Committee; not the peaceful Occupy movement.
One lady requested a porta-potty if council was not going to take any action until January. Councilwoman Esther Manheimer pointed out it would not be fair to use city resources to support one group’s free speech and not others.
The Public Safety Committee will vet the ordinances at a meeting open to the public January 3, at 3:30, on the 3rd floor of the Municipal Building. (Just remember 3.) Until then, alluding to the city’s tolerance, Bellamy indicated, “Staff is to continue to go about doing what they’ve not been doing.”