Many of you may have read 3rd ward Alderman Don Bachtard's latest letter in the local rags the past few weeks. We're putting it here for our own abject amusement.
Letter to the Editor:
I wrote this to let your readers know how I will vote regarding Special Use for PADS at St. Paul, and to render my reasoning for that vote. I will vote "yes" to require special use. The primary reason is that the bulk of the constituents (at this point about 70% of more than 300 people) I have spoken with support special use.
I must say that I don't believe myself that government should be involved in this, that essentially it should be decided by the parish at St. Paul and the nearby neighbors of St. Paul. I am troubled by the fact that the city seems to be at odds with itself over this. Since I am an engineer by trade, and not a legal expert, I can only render my opinion of what is or is not constitutional or legal based on my own research and conversations with attorneys, including the city attorney.
With that in mind, there is some basis in law to support the Special Use requirement. If you read the Wikipedia article about the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment, you will see that the exact phrasing of the clause is, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion...or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"). The most commonly held interpretation of the clause is the Jeffersonian interpretation which defines the clause as "a wall of separation of church and state".
The city is not part of Congress. Since the clause is directed specifically at Congress, it may not apply. We are not legislating to prevent the free exercise of religion. We have codified the Special Use process for the safety of our citizens, including the occupants of the PADS shelter. Under this interpretation, what we are asking is perfectly legal and constitutional.
Also, several state and federal court judges have ruled favoring municipalities and state governments in cases like this, as you can see in the Wikipedia article referenced. Fire safety, food safety and other risks associated with overnight stays are, according to the opinions I have read, "compelling reasons for a municipality to request special use". We, as the citizens of Park Ridge are liable if some one is injured there and we have not enforced our local safety codes as preventative measures to that injury.
Also to be considered is that statement in several of these opinions that "a homeless shelter is not directly connected to the free exercise of worship". In other words, these judges have ruled that requiring special use does no interfere with the church's worship or mission in any way.Finally, I would say what I have said to several of the ministers in the PRMA. Going through Special Use is an advantage, not a hindrance, to the shelter and the PRMA. It shows that the churches are good neighbors and do not consider themselves to be above the law, and that they are not only concerned about the safety of their PADS clients and St. Paul's neighborhood, but are aware of the liabilities that the city and they themselves face by noncompliance with the city's codes and process.
I ask the ministers to consider also that if the church were to go through the process and meet all of the requirements that according to the opinion of several municipal attorneys I have spoken with, there would be no basis in our own local law that would provide an avenue to deny the permit. As a matter of my profession, I have been denied Special Use by several cities here in this region for placement of cellular transmitters. The denials were based on things that were exclusive of their Special Use permissions and governed by federal or state law. In every one of these cases, lawsuits that were filed were ruled on or settled quite expeditiously in our favor.I ask for you all to encourage your minister to comply with our request for Special Use, should the council vote that way. I am voting the way my constituents have asked me to, in spite of the fact that I personally disagree with them. This is not the first time that has happened, and I doubt that it will be the last, but that is what I promised to do.
Donald Bach, 3rd Ward Alderman, Park Ridge
The PRU Crew couldn't believe what we were reading... And we think we understand how he got to that dark and distant corner in his head... And we thought about deconstructing the thing... But we're pretty sure even the Gonella Bakery doesn't have enough bread crumbs to get this man home again.
