Cookeville Council Delays Panhandling Ordinance

The Cookeville City Council on Thursday declined to vote on an ordinance seeking to ban panhandling and taking donations in the city streets.

The council voted on a recommendation from City Manager Mike Davidson to remove the item from the agenda.

“I would like to spend a little bit more time with the city attorney and police chief to review that proposed ordinance to see if we can’t get some more specific language in there for that ordinance,” Davidson said.

Davidson said the ordinance would prevent people from walking into the street and asking for donations.

“For some time now, we’ve been looking and considering the idea of how to try to address the issue of people soliciting donations out in the street,” Davidson said. “You can seek donations along the sidewalk if you want to, but you can’t stand along the street and go out in traffic. It poses a hazard for traffic as well as pedestrians as they go out into the roadways.”

Davidson said the ordinance would only cite people soliciting or seeking donations in the roadway and not the donors.

The ordinance will be placed on an agenda in the near future.