An ordinance that would limit the number of garage sales allowed in the City of Aberdeen was tabled after public testimony convinced City Council members to look at other options to curtail the handful of problem garage sale sites the ordinance was designed to target.
The ordinance was written to drop the limit on garage sales annually from 10 to two. At the ordinance’s first reading at the July 26 meeting it passed on to the second reading easily by a vote or 9-2, with James Cook and Alice Phelps casting the two no votes. The tide turned at the second reading when the call for public testimony brought Scammel Hill resident Tim Harrington to the podium.
He said his wife loves going to garage sales, and loves having them. The couple have hosted two this year, one in May, another in June, he said.
“Then I had a neighbor come down to my door … saying someone had come to their door with a petition” to keep the couple from having any more garage sales. “We were very upset. We do our best to comply with the law, and to be good citizens and neighbors.”
He added that the property the couple owns on Scammel Hill where the sales are held is outside the view of neighbors and the signs they put up draw traffic to an area that doesn’t interfere with neighboring properties.
In the Harringtons’ estimation, the purpose behind the petition and ordinance comes down to one word: “Privilege.”
“My first day on the hill 18 years ago I was packing a box into the house when a guy yells up, ‘Hey, are you buying or renting?’ I said buying, and he said, ‘Good, we don’t like renters here,’” he said. “Seems what people are worried about is not the garage sales, just the fact we’re inviting outsiders into the neighborhood. The problem has been around here a long time, people with the attitude that, ‘Hey, we don’t want poor people up here. Or God forbid brown people.’”
“We need to have a firm understanding of where this proposal came from,” he said. “To me there’s not a bit of doubt about the motivation behind it: it’s based in elitism, nimbyism (not in my back yard), and just plain old grumpyism.”
He concluded by describing how garage sales are good for the community at large, encouraging healthy behaviors and social interaction as well as putting money in tills at area businesses.
The ordinance was introduced by council member Dee Anne Shaw. She said it was an attempt by the council Public Works Committee that she chairs to address problems that had been brought to the city’s attention. Harrington’s assessment that the ordinance was borne of a sense of elitism, racism or any other motivating factor should be treated with caution, she said.
Shaw said she was happy to take the ordinance back to the committee.
“I think this is a good example of the system working,” she said. “We were working on a solution to a problem and got some feedback,” so the ordinance can be fine tuned to serve the purpose for which it was intended.
Councilman Alan Richrod followed Harrington by saying a system in which each garage sale location would have to get a permit — which could be available online — and display that permit at the sale location, could help curb the issue of nuisance sales.
“I was on the fence about this before, but you’ve shown me that a few bad apples have spoiled it for the rest of us,” said Councilwoman Kathi Prieto, directing her comment to Harrington’s testimony.
Councilman Denny Lawrence added, “I have garage sales, and it is entertainment for myself and the people who show up. This ordinance was intended to go after the sales that go on every single day, supplied by people breaking into cars and homes and stealing items.”
Mayor Erik Larson entered the conversation: “From what I’m hearing here it sounds like a lot of you believe this needs more consideration. I’m willing to take a motion to table this and send it back to the (Public Works) committee (to explore other solutions).”
After some discussion about Larson’s legal ability to call for a motion to table while discussion was still going on, it was decided he was well within his authority as a point of privilege to call for a superseding motion. A voice vote was called to table the motion and send it back to the Public Works Committee, which was approved unanimously.
