LEBANON — A series of proposed changes attempting to bring the voter-approved “Welcoming Lebanon Ordinance” into compliance with state and federal law while also protecting the city’s immigrant community will go before the City Council next week.
A seven-person task force comprised of city residents, activists and attorneys recently completed its mission to edit the ordinance in a way that shields undocumented immigrants from federal immigration authorities and replaces language seen as problematic.
The resulting five-page document successfully meets those goals, according to members of the Lebanon Fair and Impartial Policing Task Force, who have worked in public meetings for the last four months for craft compromises.
“We heard each other out and we were able to work out a consensus,” task force member Keysi Montas, a native of the Dominican Republic and director of the Dartmouth College Department of Safety and Security, said on Monday. “That took a lot of work from everybody and a lot of willingness to hear each other out and understand where others were coming from.”
The welcoming ordinance — which was part of similar campaigns in Hartford, Hanover and Norwich — bars Lebanon police from aiding immigration enforcement efforts, detaining people for violating immigration law or allowing federal immigration officials access to people in Lebanon police custody.
The measure was approved, 1,218-1,015, during Lebanon’s municipal elections in March and is set to take effect Jan. 1. Under Lebanon’s charter, the City Council has the authority the amend the ordinance.
However, legal questions about some of the ordinance’s provisions resulted in the task force’s formation in May, along with its mandate to suggest edits to sections that “require minor clarification.”
At the time, some city officials took issue with a provision that forbids the city from collecting information on “the basis of race, ethnicity, language, religion, citizenship or immigration status.” The rule, they said, could hamstring attempts to track police actions and make sure they are free of racial bias.
A legal review conducted by the city’s attorney also found that a portion of the ordinance mandating that the city inform residents when immigration officials are present could be viewed as obstructing federal authorities. The task force’s recommendations include exemptions to the collection provision that would allow the city to gather race-related information for election purposes, to evaluate the police department and to assist people applying for financial aid.
The group also suggests amending the ordinance so that if a Border Patrol checkpoint is affecting traffic, the City Manager’s Office would make “a reasonable effort to confirm that (traffic problems) exist” and notify the public through its LebAlert system.
Devin Wilkie, a task force member who was part of the committee that petitioned for the welcoming ordinance, said on Monday that he’s “grateful” for the proposed changes.
“In a number of cases what we have discussed has strengthened the ordinance,” he said. “It made it enforceable in a way it would not have been without this process.”
But, he said, the unanimous vote taken by the task force last week was only to move the recommendations forward, not “fully endorse” them.
For instance, he disagrees with a compromise that would reduce punishment for city employees who fail to obey the ordinance from a violation-level offense, w hich would be adjudicated in the courts, to a city infraction handled internally.
The change was suggested after city staffers worried they could be taken to court for violating the welcoming ordinance.
“We remain concerned that the ordinance doesn’t actually lay out an enforcement procedure,” Wilkie said. “It lays out a procedure for reporting violations but doesn’t explain what those violations do and subsequently leaves it up to city policy or individual department and organization policies.”
The Lebanon City Council is scheduled to discuss the proposed ordinance changes during its next meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 4. The city also has scheduled a special meeting to discuss and vote on the matter Thursday, Nov. 19.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.