Defiance Council Amends Ordinance In Response To Suit

Defi­ance City Coun­cil met on Tues­day night. Accord­ing to the Cres­cent News, a Defi­ance munic­i­pal ordi­nance that is the sub­ject of a law­suit filed by the Amer­i­can Civil Lib­er­ties Union on behalf of a local group was amended at that meet­ing.

The suit is pend­ing in the U.S. North­ern Dis­trict Court in Toledo, and chal­lenges a city ordi­nance pro­hibit­ing “paint­ing” on pub­lic side­walks.

The Occupy Defi­ance group had protested that the ordi­nance, which they claim was used as the basis to deny their efforts in 2012 to place mes­sages on city side­walks, is uncon­sti­tu­tional.

The ordi­nance approved at this week’s coun­cil meet­ing amends that pre­vi­ous ordi­nance to state that “no per­son shall reck­lessly deface or dis­fig­ure any side­walk or part thereof by paint­ing on the side­walk with per­ma­nent or imper­ma­nent mate­ri­als, or by past­ing or plac­ing printed bills or posters thereon. No per­son shall spit on any street of side­walk or in any pub­lic place in the city.“

City law direc­tor David Williams told coun­cil that the change would elim­i­nate any ambi­gu­ity in the ordinance.