When Wednesday’s Aberdeen City Council meeting, which was to include a public hearing about a proposed longer-term homeless camping site at recently-purchased property on South Michigan Street, was canceled earlier in the day, a group of residents opposed to the camp quickly organized a rally at City Hall for that evening.

The rally attracted about 50 people, including Aberdeen Mayor Erik Larson. He addressed the group outside, explaining the meeting was canceled because the agenda was not posted on the city’s website the required 24 hours before meeting time. The city currently runs a sanctioned homeless camp behind City Hall and proposes to close that and install one at the Michigan Street address. It would be large enough for about 150 people. The hearing was to discuss the new camp.

“I’m as frustrated as everyone here,” he said of the cancellation, to some shouts of doubt. Larson said it was because the website company once again failed to place the notice in a timely fashion. A meeting in January was canceled for the same reason.

“I’ll be the first to admit there were about a dozen people who should have caught this in time, including me,” said Larson.

Larson then offered to open the doors to City Hall and invited everyone at the rally to come up to council chambers to ask questions and provide comments on the proposed Michigan Street camp. A handful in attendance refused, saying Larson was trying to hijack their rally. Larson said he wanted to hold the informal, unofficial meeting inside so the rally attendees’ comments and questions, and his answers to those questions, could be recorded and transcribed so members of the council could hear them. The city still plans to go ahead with its formal hearing at a future council meeting.

In the end, more than 30 people made their way to council chambers, where Larson was joined by City Attorney Patrice Kent and City Council President Tawni Andrews.

Larson, who had arrived in town from Chicago earlier that day, said he had made a request to the City Council that the public hearing be included in the next regularly scheduled council meeting Oct. 9, rather than set a special meeting ahead of the regular meeting date, but that either way there would be a public hearing.

Comments

The atmosphere in council chambers was tense at times. Shouts from the gallery were common while others commented, prompting Larson on several occasions to ask that those commenting be allowed to speak and those shouting from the gallery wait their turn at the microphone.

Several people spoke out about fearing for their safety when walking in downtown Aberdeen because of the large number of transients they encounter. A woman identifying herself as Donna Faye Leske said she had been “accosted” by transients. “It is sickening the number of people begging with their hands out, and the nasty comments they make if you don’t give them something.”

Larson told her to please call the police if she felt threatened, “and if they don’t respond please call me,” saying it was his responsibility to make sure the safety and security concerns of residents are addressed.

Dave Deakin from Ward 3 was one of several who commented about the needle exchange program run by the county’s public health workers. Many feel it’s encouraging drug use in the city. Larson said the needle exchange program is scheduled to be a topic on the Oct. 9 council meeting agenda.

“I saw two people shooting up within 200 feet of the needle exchange,” out in plain sight, said Deakin. Larson replied that kind of behavior would not be tolerated in the city and encouraged anyone who sees such activity to call 911 to report it. “If you don’t you’re part of the problem,” said Larson.

Deakin countered that the development of the Michigan Street camp that he said could theoretically hold as many as 300 people would exacerbate the existing problems with the City Hall camp that holds about 60.

“There is not going to be 300 people there,” said Larson. “There is no reason to ever allow for that, that would be untenable.” He said the camp would be limited to about half that number and it, like the City Hall camp, would have onsite security and enforced rules — including no drugs on the site. At the City Hall camp, Larson said two people had been arrested for drugs and seven others had violated the rules. He also said several had entered into more permanent housing since the camp opened, and some had entered programs.

A commenter offered that a narcotics-detecting dog should be used to sweep the camps to make sure the residents are in compliance with the rules. Larson said he would check into the legality of such sweeps and seemed open to the suggestion.

Many commented the city appeared to be encouraging homeless from other parts of the county and beyond to come to Aberdeen. “If you build it, they will come,” was shouted from the gallery on several occasions.

Carol Tuhkanen, co-owner of Finn Electric, a business adjacent to the proposed Michigan Street camp site, asked Larson if the city would be compensating local property and business owners for the decline in property values many commenters feel will come with the camp.

“If that was the case, if it reduces property values, that would be reason to end it (the camp),” said Larson. He said a a one-year temporary use permit for the site will allow the city to monitor the impacts of the camp and make future decisions accordingly.

“I don’t think this is the final solution — or a perfect solution,” he said, adding the city had to look at what it could afford to allow a place for the homeless to camp, as directed by recent federal court decisions.

Larson added that the city had filed a “friend of the court” brief in the appeal of the the 2018 U.S. Court of Appeals decision in the Martin v Boise case, in which the courts deemed that Boise’s restrictions to public sleeping and camping were unconstitutional in circumstances in which homeless people had nowhere else to go. That case set precedent for the recent federal suit against Aberdeen for its actions during the closure of the now-cleared river camp, and has restricted the city’s actions regarding the homeless since, said Larson, who is hopeful the U.S. Supreme Court will take on the appeal and overturn the Appeals Court decision.