Editorial

Let's have 500 people over to celebrate

Tuesday night, Gray Town Councilors voted 5-0 in its first step toward repealing its own Mass gathering ordinance, developed and adopted in 2003.

Gray's ordinance was, in many instances, even more restrictive and burdensome than the one that was recently struck down in Augusta as unconstitutional. For example, Gray required a 60-day prior notice, and Augusta's required 30 days. Augusta's ordinance required applicants to meet with police, while Gray required applicants to hire them at their own expense, and failed to provide a poverty waiver.

The Council decided that reverting to the State's mass gathering law was sufficient protection. Their decision was prompted partly because of the verdict rendered by Bangor U.S. District Court Judge John A. Woodcock, Jr. in December. He ordered striking down Augusta's restrictions on the rights of peaceful protesters to march and gather in Augusta because Augusta's ordinance was deemed unconstitutional.

I have consistently editorialized against Gray's Mass Gathering ordinance for several years. Recent events in Gray have demonstrated that my deepest reservations concerning the ordinance had come true: it has been used by staff as an abusive club against citizens who may act different or engage in activities that are counter to the philosophy of appointed officials. These issues were finally raised and discussed publicly at the Council's December meeting.

That same week, with the MCLU's success in bringing forward the constitutional issues in Augusta's ordinance, I urged the Council to repeal the ordinance in Gray. Tuesday night, this Town Council, composed of a new membership than the one that had originally adopted the ordinance, accepted that the local ordinance is an unnecessary regulatory burden on citizens and an inhibitor of free assembly.

I congratulate the MCLU in its vigilance in seeing that free speech and assembly remains vibrant. MCLU's efforts in doing so allowed this local newspaper the teeth to urge Council to follow suit, and see that free speech and peaceable assembly continue uninterrupted in our local communities. I thank MCLU for its hard work on this case, and I wanted the public to know of the bright spot in one area of Maine and its direct effect from the union's diligence.

I also congratulate this Council in their stance toward repealing a complicated and locally unnecessary regulation. It was a brave step for a local governing body to have the courage to self-examine one of its regulatory processes, deem it unworkable, and strip away a layer of government. Thank you, Town Council, for repealing a bad piece of administration. Doing so instantly makes citizens' lives much better, because your decision strengthens, rather than erodes, citizens' rights.