City Council amends ordinance regarding the distribution of publications
At their last meeting on Nov. 19, the Moscow City Council approved amendments to an ordinance they passed in June addressing the distribution of publications, both unsolicited or poorly aimed.
“The ordinance actually does two things,” said Randy Fife, Moscow city attorney. “One is saying ‘hey look, you gotta be a better shot than just throwing it someplace on the property’ and the other is if you just don’t want a publication you should be able to stop it.”
The original ordinance was passed on June 18, and it established a do not deliver list and a zone that the publication must be delivered inside — within four feet of the home entrance or on the porch. According to Fife, the penalty for each violation is a misdemeanor with a fine of $255, which can add up quickly if there are several violations, or if the distributor doesn’t come take care of it. Fife said they wrote the ordinance to give distributors a 24 hour grace period to take care of the problem before the fine comes into play.
“What we really want is for people to comply. We don’t focus on the fine because that doesn’t fix the problem,” Fife said.
He said several council members thought the original ordinance was working pretty well, but he wanted to make it stronger.
“When I reviewed some things and thought about it after it passed it seemed to me that there was some potential for confusion,” Fife said. “When I have a chance to improve things I take it, so I redrafted it just a little bit to ensure that we accomplished the two things we were trying to accomplish.”
Fife said when amending the original, he made sure to add language clarifying that the city is in no way trying to police content.
“We are not interested in trying to tell people what they can or can’t deliver, or make decisions based upon its content,” Fife said. “But if it’s stuff that homeowners don’t want, or that the distributors just throw anywhere, we don’t want that to happen.”
The amendment was passed on Nov. 19 and has been in effect since Nov 24.
Andrew Deskins can be reached at [email protected]