By Howard Fischer
Mail | X: @azcapmedia

PHOENIX — He says it’s about public safety, but a new proposal by Sen. John Kavanagh is designed to get the panhandlers who often populate well-trafficked roads out of the medians by making their presence there illegal.

Nothing in the proposal by the Fountain Hills Republican mentions begging. Nor does it mention those who set up in medians to sell items to passing motorists.

Instead, it spells out that individuals cannot remain on a traffic median or island that is less than 10 feet wide unless that person is “expeditiously crossing” the street.

“It’s all about public safety,” Kavanagh said.

“People standing on medians when cars are driving by at 40-50 miles an hour is dangerous,” he continued. “It’s dangerous for the person on the median and it’s dangerous for drivers who may have to swerve and get into an accident — or perhaps hit them if they step into the roadway if they’re intoxicated.”

Kavanagh insisted Senate Bill 1029 has nothing to do with cutting down on begging.

“I don’t think because I ban dangerous panhandling on narrow medians that people will suddenly stop panhandling and get jobs,” he said.

“They’re just going to go to the sidewalk,” Kavanagh said. “So it’s not going to have any effect.”

But Kavanagh has a history of crafting state laws that specifically target the practices of those who beg for money or handouts.

It all started with a 2013 ruling by a federal judge who found panhandling is protected by the First Amendment. That voided all Arizona statutes that made the practice illegal.

A year later Kavanagh sought to recraft the law. But that fix was vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer who questioned the need for a new statewide law, saying localities remain free to adopt their own ordinances.

So the following year Kavanagh was back, this time with a more specific — and personal — issue.

He said he was frustrated going home from the Capitol in the evening, getting off Loop 202 at Country Club Road and finding the light at the bottom of the ramp was red — not from regular traffic but from the fact that someone there had pushed the crosswalk button specifically to stop motorists to provide an opportunity for begging.

“Here’s someone who’s not working, who’s bumming money, and he’s going to slow you down so he can bum off more people?” Kavanagh told Capitol Media Services at the time. “That’s wrong,” he said, calling what the folks at the crosswalks were doing “one of those little murderers that drive people crazy and make people upset that government can’t control bad behavior.”

That measure became law.

Kavanagh also is the author of another law that makes “aggressive panhandling” illegal.

That makes it a crime to solicit money or sell goods in a public area by knowingly or recklessly making physical contact with another person.

It also outlaws approaching or following someone being solicited in a way “to cause a reasonable person to fear imminent bodily harm.” It also is illegal to continue soliciting after being told to stop.

Finally, it bans any kind of begging within 15 feet of banks and automated teller machines.

Kavanagh said at the time these are “quality of life crimes.”

“These are the little incivilities that drive the middle class out of our cities and destroy cities and make them ghettos,” he said.

But Kavanagh said his latest measure isn’t designed to cut down on begging.

In fact, he said, it probably would have no effect.

“I think it would just displace panhandling to a safer location on the side of the road,” Kavanagh said.

“I’m relocating them to a safer location that’s probably no more than 30 or 40 feet away,” he said. “I don’t see where that’s infringing on their ability to panhandle.”

Kavanagh said that’s why he expects support from at least some lawmakers from across the aisle.

“The Democrat opponents in the past, having seen what happens to homeless people who are unsupervised and in the street, will have a little compassion for them,” he said.

That didn’t prove to be the case last year when lawmakers considered a nearly identical measure pushed by Rep. Joseph Chaplik, R-Scottsdale.

“It’s criminalizing people who don’t need to be criminalized,” said Rep. Patty Contreras, D-Phoenix, in opposing the legislation. And Rep. Analise Ortiz, another Phoenix Democrat, said nothing in the measure addresses the underlying reasons why people are asking for money.

That bill did clear the Republican-controlled Legislature only to be vetoed by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. She suggested the measure — and who it might sweep up — was not narrowly crafted.

“Recognizing the importance of constitutionally protected rights, it is critical that we approach these matters with precision to avoid infringing on

Arizonans’ freedoms,” she wrote.
That drew an angry reaction on social media from Chaplik who said the veto “is simply about continuing her reign of lawlessness and will end up costing lives of pedestrians in dangerous areas of roadways,” he posted.

Kavanagh’s bill does have some exceptions about being in a median or traffic island — and not just for those who are “expeditiously crossing” the street. Pedestrians could hang out on a median or island that has constructed paths, sidewalks, bus stops, benches “or similar structures that are designed to accommodate a person’s presence.”