VNM Holds Press Conference on Street Solicitation Ordinance
The Virginia New Majority spoke out against the Town of Herndon's street solicitation ordinance
The Virginia New Majority held a press conference addressing the Town of Herndon's street solicitation ordinance today.
Tonight the Town Council will meet in a closed session meeting with Town Attorney Richard Kaufman to discuss the street solicitation ordinance, which prohibits people from soliciting goods and services in public right-of-ways such as roads and medians.
In October the Advancement Project and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network sent a letter to the council regarding the street solicitation ordinance. The letter alleges that the ordinance threatens First Amendment rights.
According to the letter "NDLON has had success in bringing legal challenges to anti-solicitation ordinances" previously. However, the letter requested a meeting with the council rather than litigation.
During VNM's press conference, Herndon resident Julius Bradley said he moved to Herndon because of the value, the school systems and the sense of community. He said he recently got more involved in local politics because he didn't like some of the things he saw happening, including the street solicitation ordinance.
Bradley said in May 2010 he voted for change on the council in hopes that negative sentiment toward day laborers would go away. He said so far he hasn't seen the change he hoped for when he voted for new members of the council.
Arturo Prieto, another Herndon resident said the previous town council members wanted to incite fear among some Herndon residents and he also voted for new council members who he thought would be better for the town. He said the street solicitation ordinance eats into human rights just to please a small group of people within the town.
During the press conference Anita Sinha, senior attorney with the Advancement Project said there are two core issues with the street solicitation ordinance related to the First Amendment. She said the ordinance isn't content neutral and it is a broad restriction on free speech.
Sinha said the 2005 solicitation ordinance intended to "clean up the visual blight of Latino workers" in Herndon and included language that said so, but the 2010 ordinance took that language out. The October letter from Advancement Project and NDLON said the 2005 ordinance violated the Fourteenth Amendment as well as the First.
William Campenni, a Herndon resident, questioned why VNM and the Advancement Project hadn't pointed out that there are still places under the current ordinance where people can solicit, including on Elden Street near Spring Street in front of Ice House Café and O'Sullivan's, where there is on-street parking.
Sinha said allowing a few small spaces in which people can solicit is not enough and still infringes on free speech. She said this keeps people from communicating in too many other places, such as sidewalks, pathways and could even include residents' properties.
Walther Rodriguez, a Columbian immigrant who has lived in Herndon for 10 years, said he used to be a day laborer. He was involved in the day labor union in Herndon in the early 2000s and helped the day labor center.
Rodriguez said he felt the day labor site was working well and this ordinance further deepens the negative feelings that the closing of the day labor site left. He said he has stayed in Herndon because moving is expensive, and because he loves the town.
Grace Han Wolf
1:05 am on Wednesday, January 5, 2011
I take great exception to being named as someone whom the Virginia New Majority 'claims' to have gotten elected to the 2010-2012 Herndon Town Council. I declined their endorsement and the VNM did absolutely nothing for my campaign. I do not support this organization's involvement in Town of Herndon issues.
I believe the residents of Herndon deserve the truth and that is not what is portrayed by the Virginia New Majority.
Here is the sole email exchange I have had with the Virginia New Majority:
From Grace Wolf <gracehwolf@gmail.com>
to Jon Liss <jliss@virginianewmajority.org>
date Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 6:09 PM
subject Re: virginia new majority
Dear Mr. Liss
Thank you for the kind offer to participate. I have made a conscious decision not to seek any endorsements from individuals and organizations that either don't live in the Town of Herndon or who are not located or headquartered in the Town of Herndon and have organized my campaign and efforts with this focus in mind.
Again, thank you for the offer, I very much appreciate your interest.
Grace Wolf
On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 5:24 PM, Jon Liss <jliss@virginianewmajority.org> wrote:
Ms. Wolf –
We have not received a response to our questionnaire from you. Most other candidates have responded. I just wanted to check in before we consider organizational endorsements. Please let me know either way. Thanks.
Jon Liss
Virginia New Majority
Ann H Csonka
1:22 am on Wednesday, January 5, 2011
“Sinha said the original 2005 ordinance, which the current street solicitation ordinance branched off of…”
There is a disconnect here. The June 2010 ordinance is an entirely separate effort and issue.
The 2005 anti-solicitation ordinance was valid throughout Town because the Official Worker Center provided an approved organized venue to connect workers with people who needed sporadic/occasional labor. When the 2006-08 Council closed the Worker Center, the anti-solicitation ordinance could no longer be enforced.
Leslie Perales
1:40 am on Wednesday, January 5, 2011
The letter from the Advancement Project from October, signed by Sinha, seems to tie them together, believing that the 2010 ordinance came out of the one from 2005. I'm adding it to this article now.
Ann H Csonka
3:18 am on Wednesday, January 5, 2011
We did not know about the press conference, but are long-term involved Herndon residents. (These views are John De Noyer’s as well as mine.)
We want the Town Council to continue to focus on Downtown and Metrorail action, maintain services in spite of revenue shortfalls, and support a myriad of essential positive needs for residents and the business community.
This 2010 street solicitation ordinance is an unnecessary encumbrance.
Sadly, the presence of VNM, which has been organizing citizens to protest the ordinance, complicates the issue in two ways:
(1) empowers silent citizens to speak out as part of the community (good), and
(2) creates a climate of contention causing some to resist VNM by holding onto the ordinance. This devolves into a power contest between VNM and Town (bad).
Decision makers should remove VNM from the equation, then consider the ordinance on its merits and value to the Town.
The 2010 ordinance should be repealed because it:
1. is redundant (public safety already covered by other laws)
2. attempts to regulate non-problems
3. curtails individual free speech and activities of public entities
4. precludes normal human interaction in a friendly place with “small town atmosphere” that leaders claim to hold in high value
5. is internally inconsistent (wording)
6. requires Staff time when limited funds curtail staff time
We suggest that Council put this ordinance behind them by repeal. It is time to clear the field for positive actions.
Bob Bruhns
10:39 am on Wednesday, January 5, 2011
The problem with the 2005 solicitation ordinance was its focus on forcing day laborers to the former day labor center that was a total mish-mash of town, county and private effort. In the end it all fell apart, because it was nothing but a big game of responsibility laundering.
Nobody liked to have a crowd of day laborers taking over the Elden Street and Alabama Avenue intersection, especially when Fairfax County reported that more than 85% of the day laborers were evidently seeking work unlawfully. The 2005 ordinance and the 2006 day labor center were cleverly sold to Herndon as a solution that would get the laborers off the streets, and provide us with a source of cheap labor.
The odd thing was that people who supported getting the laborers off the streets, and using them as cheap labor, without regard to legality of employment, were considered wonderful and good - but anybody who was concerned that we were supporting illegal presence and illegal employment, were called racists, xenophobes, etc. Sweeping the laborers under the rug, and using them as cheap slave labor, was somehow considered good; but enforcing the law was considered racist. Hmmm.
And now, political forces are once again trying to force Herndon to be the town of 'anything goes'. And as usual, most of the pressure is coming from other areas of Fairfax County.
Just say NO. The people of Herndon do not want their town to be some kind of gray-area slave labor street circus. It's time to get real.
Leslie Perales
3:56 pm on Wednesday, January 5, 2011
I added copies of both the 2005 and 2010 ordinances to this article for further reading.