MORGANTOWN, W.Va. –– Morgantown City Councilor from the Fifth Ward Danielle Trumble is providing insight into why she does not supprt the recently passed camping ban.
On WAJR’s “Talk of the Town,” Trumble said the measure was approved with no workshop and was moved through the process with very little compromise leading up to the approval. In addition to input from the public and council debate, she said the other missing piece was meeting with the administration and police to learn how to enforce the measure or even if the proposal would accomplish the stated goal of cleaning up downtown.
“I have more time as a policy maker to refine this policy, to discuss it with the staff that’s going to be tasked with enforcing this policy,” Trumble said. “And to find options for shelter in this community.”
Trumble said the city can effectively address the downtown issues with existing ordinances. Evidence of that she said is the success of a recent increase in enforcement targeting street-level crime and drug use.
“We are going to be enforcing all of these other things that we could be enforcing now,” Trumble said. ” We have already had an uptick in those enforcements- we’ve seen several large drug arrests in the downtown area in the last few weeks.”
Trumble made it clear she is not confident the recently passed camping ban will have the desired effect. Enforcing existing laws works as shown by the recent crack down by police.
“I hope I’m wrong, I hope this makes the difference people are looking to see,” Trumble said. “We have still seen plenty of camping along the rail-trail, we have seen plenty of camping along the river. It is already on the books that camping is banned in these areas.”
Trumble believes the ordinance will embolden people to test the limits of enforcement. She said some of those instances could be intentional in order to draw they city into a legal liability trap.
“They will to get them to do or say something that they think is controversial, that they think is going around due process, and that they think is not the correct way to handle things so they can file a lawsuit.”
Trumble said her support of a recall for other council members was out of frustration following a more than seven hour meeting of city council. She plans to look at issues based on merit and hopes they can help Morgantown be a better place to. She also expects other members of council to approach the work of the people objectively.
“That is something the people want to see and I think the people should have a say in that,” Trumble said. “So, I would hope that other members of council will not look at that because I am the one that brought it forward and chose to write it off because of a disagreement on another policy.”