Improving the Searcy Code of Ordinances

The Growing Regulatory Burden
Every year, individuals and businesses contend with a growing number of laws, regulations, and ordinances created at all levels of government. At the national level, organizations such as Freedom Works, The Heritage Foundation, and OverCriminalized.com seek to inform citizens about the growing restrictions to our freedom and to motivate them to take action in support of common sense, simplified Federal laws and regulations. The Arkansas chapter of Americans for Prosperity is working for similar goals with citizens at the state level.

At the Federal level, the growing costs of regulations and laws impacts all of us.

• According to an article on the Freedom Works Web site, "excessive regulation, such as excessive taxation of any business or industry, can weaken or even kill it"
• In the Freedom Works Issues section, they say, "Complying with the thousands of regulations federal bureaucrats are scheduled to approve this year could cost American individuals and businesses over $700 billion. This figure doesn't even take into account the indirect costs imposed by these regulations including loss of productivity and limits on innovation and growth."
• According to the Heritage Foundation, "the size and scope of the regulatory state grew significantly" during President George W. Bush's tenure, and it "is currently rising at more than twice" that rate under President Obama

New Searcy Ordinances
People are becoming more aware of the impact the growth of laws and regulations have on their lives. Even on the city level here in Searcy, the regulatory burden on individuals and businesses has increased over the past two years. Several ordinances were passed creating new regulations for us to follow. They include:

• Ordinance 2009-23 "to provide for the regulation of certain adult oriented businesses," which had previously been banned (passed July 14, 2009)
• Ordinance 2009-24 "establishing regulations concerning the conduct of yard sales, garage sales, and other similar activities" (passed July 14, 2009)
• Ordinance 2010-04  "setting a thirty-day period for filing referendum petitions" (passed February 23, 2010)
• Ordinance 2010-07 "to adopt procedural rules of governance for meetings of the Searcy City Council" (passed March 9, 2010)
• Ordinance 2010-15 "to prohibit the sale, use or possession, or offering for sale, certain synthetic cannabanoid substances known as 'K-2'" (passed June 8, 2010)
• Ordinance 2010-22 "to amend the Code of Ordinances to create a Searcy Tree Board" (passed August 10, 2010)

Overlapping Ordinances: An Example
While some of these ordinances were necessary, others may not have been. For example, Ordinance 2009-24 established the following new regulations for garage sales in the city limits:

• "Garage sale" defined as "the sale of any personal property, which is conducted on or about the premises of a private residence, by any resident or residents of a neighborhood, one of whom must be the occupant of the residence and which sale is open to the public"
• Maximum of 8 garage sales per person per year
• Maximum of 2 garage sales per person per quarter
• A garage sale may "not exceed a total of three (3) "total days in length which shall be held on any of five (5) days"
• Garage sale merchandise is "limited to used property and not property purchased for resale"
• Signs advertising for the garage sale "must be removed withing four (4) hours after the end of the Garage Sale"
• Use of a public address system is not allowed
• "Goods for sale and items used in conjunction with the Garage Sale must be removed within (24) twenty-four hours of the conclusion of the Garage Sale."
• The ordinance does "not apply to churches, schools or not-for-profit organizations"

However, in June 2009, Section 9 and Section 17 of the Searcy Code of Ordinances were sufficient to achieve compliance with city code in an incident in which Alderman Mary Ann Arnett asked Mayor Belinda LaForce to have garage sale items removed from a yard in River Oaks.

• Alderman Arnett requested help from Mayor LaForce regarding what Alderman Arnett called a "Hispanic Garage Sale"
• Mayor LaForce asked for intervention from Code Enforcement
• Code Enforcement reported on their successful enforcement actions
• Alderman Arnett thanked Mayor LaForce for her help

The new garage sale regulations were added to our Code of Ordinances, which already had Sections 9 and 17 restricting us from using our homes as retail outlets and displaying goods for sale in our yards for extended amounts of time. Furthermore, the existing code specifies penalties in Section 1 for any violations.

Outdated Ordinances
More troublesome are other sections of the Code of Ordinances that are no longer enforced or that may be unequally enforced throughout the city. Some examples include:

• Sec. 14 - Requires us to place our garbage in metal cans with handles no larger than 20 gallons no earlier than "6:00 p.m. on the day prior to scheduled collection" and, if not followed, specifies fines ranging from $15 to $100 that are simply added to your water bill
• Sec. 24-1 - Seems to be outlawing a significant portion of the vending that occurs at events like Get Down Downtown:

"It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to park or place any vehicle, trailer, conveyance or other object upon the streets, alleys and other public ways of the City within a radius of three (3) blocks from the courthouse square, for the purpose of offering any produce, goods or other merchandise for sale."

Our Aldermen Should Review the Impact of All Ordinances
Since huge numbers of Searcy residents would be fined for violating Section 14 and since nearly all the Get Down Downtown vendors would be fined based on Section 24, it is likely they should be removed from the Code of Ordinances or modified to make more sense.

As we vote for our aldermen for 2011-2012, we should research whether the candidates will revise outdated portions of the city ordinances, will refrain from stacking new ordinances on old ones causing over-regulation, and will lighten the regulatory burdens on individuals and businesses. We need better ordinances, not necessarily more of them.