Hustonville passes ordinances restricting jaywalking, parking, mask-wearing

HUSTONVILLE — City council members unanimously passed three ordinances Tuesday night aimed at curtailing certain behaviors in city limits.

Ordinances 54, 55 and 56 concern jaywalking, parking time-limits and face-shielding, respectively.

Ordinance 54 sets up a $50 fine for anyone who crosses a street "at a place other than a regular crossing or in a heedless manner, as diagonally or against a traffic light."

Ordinance 55 makes it generally illegal to park on any public street for more than 30 minutes at one time between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. Exceptions are made for emergency responder vehicles, public utility vehicles and streets that are "sectioned off by a law enforcement agency or a government agency," according to the ordinance.

Anyone found in violation of Ordinance 55 would be charged $50.

Ordinance 56 makes illegal within Hustonville city limits "the shielding of a person's face to where the person cannot be recognized or identified."

The ordinance makes exceptions for winter clothing if the temperature drops below 30 degrees Fahrenheit and for children 15 and under who are trick-or-treating during the city's designated trick-or-treat hours.

Violating Ordinance 56 will cost offenders $100.

Spivey said the face-shielding ordinance is designed to protect the safety of Hustonville's citizens.

"I know this is not Aurora, Colo., but look what happened," he said. "I know this is Hustonville but there is criminal activity in this town."

City Councilman and Hustonville Fire Chief Jimmy Lane said he had heard from several parents who wanted an exception in the ordinance so that parents accompanying children on trick-or-treat could also wear masks.

But that idea did not sit well with Councilman Brett Witte.

"I don't know if I like that because that's whenever predators can be out the most," he said.

Council members agreed to leave the ordinance as worded because parents would still be able to dress up, they just wouldn't be allowed to wear masks.

The city council voted to "strike down" two other ordinances that had been given first readings. One ordinance was aimed at "crowd control," according to Spivey, and would have banned congregating or forming lines in public. The other was a litter-control ordinance, which Spivey said he would like to see re-written in "more generalized" terms.

At its regularly scheduled August meeting, city council members heard first readings of all five ordinances, but verbal and subsequent written requests made by the Interior Journal for the text of the ordinances were denied by City Attorney Carol Hill and City Clerk Rita Clem.

The Interior Journal appealed the city's open records request denial to the Kentucky attorney general's office on Aug. 8, stating its belief that ordinances that have received first reading are open records as defined by state law.

Hill responded to the Interior Journal's appeal Aug. 22, stating that "of these five 'proposed ordinances' none have been passed or approved in any manner, as that is not how an ordinance is enacted."

Assistant Attorney General Michelle Harrison replied to Hill's letter on Aug. 30, asking for further clarification as to whether the ordinances were "reduced to writing prior to being read aloud in the August 7 public meeting" and if the text that was read at the meeting still existed Aug. 8.

"To date, the City has not cited a statutory basis for denying access to any existing 'proposed ordinances,'" Harrison wrote. "… Please explain the statutory basis, if any, for denying (the Interior Journal) access to said records."

The full texts of the three ordinances passed Tuesday night were made available to the Interior Journal after the ordinances had passed their second readings.

Hustonville has been given until Friday to provide a response to Harrison's letter.

When asked if it was his position that the city council could withhold proposed ordinances from the public until they are passed into law, Spivey said, "yes, it is."