The Dover city council defeated an anti-panhandling measure by a vote of 6 to 3. Delmarva Public Media's Don Rush talks with Spotlight Delaware reporter Maggie Reynolds about the vote and its implications.
RUSH: By a six to three vote, The Dover City Council defeated an anti panhandling measure as Delaware towns struggle with issues surrounding the homeless population. This is Don Rush. The measure would have barred the practice on the city's highway medians, and it turned out to be a contentious issue in the council chambers. In our partnership with Spotlight Delaware, we talked with reporter Maggie Reynolds about the vote and its implications.
REYNOLDS: So this is an ordinance that Dover has been discussing since almost six months ago, late October. And it was called a traffic safety ordinance, but some people considered it to be about panhandling, and it would've banned people from stopping on roadway medians or from not crossing a crosswalk after one light cycle. So the proponents of the ordinance said it was about traffic safety and preventing any pedestrian fatalities. Opponents said it was a way of criminalizing homelessness and poverty, and ultimately the Dover City Council voted not to approve the ordinance.
RUSH: The meetings surrounding this actually got pretty contentious.
REYNOLDS: They got very contentious. Some of it was among people giving public comment. There were people from groups in Dover and in Wilmington, like activists speaking out against the ordinance very passionately saying that it isn't fair to criminalize this way that people might need to get money when they don't have other opportunities, and that the city should focus more on addressing homelessness and poverty. And then also some passionate residents that were speaking in favor of the ordinance and said they were concerned about their safety when they're driving. And the safety of pedestrians. At some council meetings, like the last council meeting that I went to where they voted, the audience was full of these people and they were even shouting at each other while giving public comment, like yelling, shut up and bullying each other. And it was very tense. And at the same time, council members got pretty at each other's throats. They had some scuffles or fights on social media involving each other's spouses. And it got pretty personal. Some of the criticism and also just debate among council members would go on for hours, often at council meetings about this. So it was both a very lengthy disagreement and got pretty tense between everybody.
RUSH: A couple of council people themselves cited legal issues that could be coming back to them in the form of lawsuits. What was that all about?
REYNOLDS: Some of the background to this is that in 2024, the ACLU of Delaware sued state and the city of Wilmington over their anti-solicitation, anti-loitering ordinances. And then the Department of Justice reached an agreement with the ACLU that those municipalities in the state would not enforce their anti-panhandling ordinances anymore. So since then, there haven't been any of those laws on the books. And at the time the Department of Justice promised that they would create an updated ordinance [that] was constitutionally sound. And so when City Councilman David Anderson introduced this ordinance, there was question initially of whether it was constitutional given that agreement in 2024 and that municipalities are not enforcing their panhandling ordinances. And immediately after he introduced it, the ACLU sent response to the city saying that as it was written, they would challenge the ordinance if passed. So then the city went through some revisions, which seemed to be pretty minor, but they said would make it more definitely in line with the Constitution. And so that ended up being just a concern for some council members that it would open the city up to legal challenge and would be really expensive. So that seemed to be a reason that some people voted against it in the end.
RUSH: Spotlight Delaware reporter Maggie Reynolds, on the defeat of the anti-panhandling measure by the Dover City Council. Full interview can be heard on this Friday's Delmarva Today at noon on WSDL and WESM. This is Don Rush for Delmarva Public Media.
