TEMPE, AZ — The Tempe City Council has passed an ordinance that would require events with 30 or more people to have a permit and pay a $25 fee.
"It gives the city manager a lot of power,” said Austin Davis, founder of the nonprofit AZ Hugs, which serves people who are homeless. "You know, when we talk about checks and balances in every sense of government, this is an attack on those checks and balances.”
Davis was one of dozens of people who spoke at the council meeting on Tuesday in opposition to the ordinance, which lasted hours and went into early Wednesday morning.
”Parks should not be privatized, public spaces should not be weaponized against those most in need of shade and a safe space to simply exist without being arrested, Davis told ABC15.
But Mayor of Tempe, Corey Woods, said this ordinance is not about targeting any group, rather simplifying a decades-old law.
“Our ordinance before was written in 1967 and it was kind of a two-pronged process—You either have this tiny, little Ramada reservation or you have this big special event permit process, and not every park in our community could be reserved, so we needed to clean up that ordinance,” Woods said.
He added the ordinance, which goes into effect beginning in August, would also allow the city to hold people accountable when it comes to leaving behind trash or debris at parks.
"The only thing that this is allowing us to do is to make sure that we know who's using these ramadas at which time, or another one of these public spaces,” Woods said. "And obviously, if there's a situation where that group leaves trash behind or debris, or they break a piece of park equipment that you, at least as a city, have some ability to hold people accountable.”
But Davis believes this ordinance gives the city too much power and will hurt the marginalized community. He is currently in the middle of a lawsuit with the city over its previous permitting requirements.
"They're trying to change the law in the middle of the lawsuit, but the changes are even more unconstitutional than before,” Davis said. "I would urge everyone to really read every word of this thing and just look at how much power it gives the city of Tempe officials to determine who deserves to be in a park, who can be in a park, and who is a criminal simply by existing where they don't want you to exist.”
The $25 fee increases to $50 if you do not live in the city, and ranges from $150 to $3,500 for special event permits, depending on the size and scope of the event.
