Five-Year-Plan on Homelessness Assigned to Committee
Chillicothe — Council overrode Mayor Luke Feeney’s veto of the “Anti-Camping” ordinance / Chapter 555 update on Monday evening. It had been passed by council on April 14th, and Feeney vetoed it after returning from a family vacation on April 24th.
Councilman Jeff Creed (R) moved for the “reconsideration” of the ordinance in their session on May 12th, and was seconded by Julie Preston (R). In an interview afterward, they explained the design of the ordinance and why they acted to restore it.
Creed said the ordinance gives the police guidance on what to do, but doesn’t tell them how to do it – and they now need to develop procedures, like Creed had to do as Fire Chief.
Addressing concerns about its requirements, he said storage space for belongings from closed-down camps can be handled at the newly centralized city facility, nicknamed the “Pepsi Building.” Creed said the city has been dealing with the homeless issue for months and years, and the police are now allowed to be more compassionate.
Preston agreed, as a retired police officer. She said the ordinance is another tool for law enforcement that allows flexibility and officer discretion…and that the police are not there to arrest the unhoused.
She said that as an officer, she interacted with the homeless much during the growing drug epidemic before retiring in 2020. She said she has never known a police officer to be mean to the homeless – and that she had even bought food and diapers for them.
Preston pointed out that Councilman Dan Demint (R) requested council to develop a five-year plan on how to deal with and reduce homelessness. She said that task has been assigned to the Community Affairs Committee chaired by Lisa Bennett, who shepherded the “Anti-Camping” ordinance.
Hear Creed and Preston in their own words in the below video. And, learn about various opinions and statements about the issue in an upcoming separate story.
With two council seats vacant, council president Kevin Shoemaker ruled that the six out of seven positive votes brought the ordinance back to the books.
New Democratic council member Gunner Barnes was the only “no” vote, as you can see in the below video. Demint (R), who had originally voted against the ordinance, was among the votes to restore it. Read Demint’s explanation of his thoughts in the upcoming side story.
President Shoemaker had again moved the location of the council session from their regular chambers to a large room in the Main Library Annex, evidently anticipating a large audience for the expected veto override. About 30 were in attendance. Three speakers directly or indirectly touched on the issue; hear them in a side story.
Mayor Feeney did not mention the probability of the override in his earlier briefing to council, and did not respond to the override after it happened. Hear his unrelated briefing to council in a separate story.
Part of continued opposition to the ordinance has been two referendum training sessions, intended to allow voters to remove the ordinance. Learn more about that on the Facebook page “Stop 555 Chillicothe.”
