Residents urge council to pause anti-camping ordinance; reverend warns against accepting anonymous donation

A sequence of public commenters at the Feb. 10 Chillicothe City Council meeting urged the council to delay action on an anti-public-camping ordinance and instead convene a broader review with service providers, while a local religious leader urged caution about accepting an anonymous $10,000 donation to the law-enforcement trust fund.

Multiple speakers asked the council to table or pause action on the camping ordinance and to convene a community-led review. Stephanie Renner, 98 Douglas Avenue, urged the council to “table the urban camping issue just following the guidance of Julie Bolin to get all the community leaders together and community resource providers together to have those conversations.” Another commenter identified as Stokian of 384 East Water Street asked the council to “table this” and warned against criminalizing people experiencing homelessness.

Several speakers said enforcement alone would not solve homelessness. One speaker said, “Sweeps and citations do not eliminate homelessness. They only move people from one area to another, increasing costs without addressing the root cause.” Amy Fitton (333 West Fifth Street) and a speaker who identified only as Alex (335 Vine Street) also urged collaborative, resource-focused solutions rather than enforcement.

Separately, the Rev. Terry Williams (47 and a Half East Main Street) raised legal and ethical concerns about an assignment (agenda item 25-016) to accept and appropriate an anonymous $10,000 donation to the law-enforcement trust fund. Williams told council members that accepting anonymous funds creates a conflict with duties outlined by the Ohio Ethics Commission and referred to an advisory opinion document, saying accepting anonymous money can undermine public scrutiny and raise questions about unlawful interests. He urged council to either return the item to committee, ask the donor to identify themselves publicly, or vote it down.

Council response and next steps: President Shoemaker said he intends to call a review session on the camping legislation so the council can “go into the issues and have some full discussion,” and he said he would attempt to schedule that meeting with input from stakeholders rather than simply picking a date. Council committees had previously approved forwarding the donor-acceptance item to the next agenda; that item was listed as expected to appear on the next formal council agenda.

No formal action on the camping ordinance was taken on Feb. 10; the council scheduled a review session and will consider the anonymous-donation acceptance at a future meeting.