Now, the same concerned citizens who organized the massive show of opposition to the ordinance are working to put the issue straight to the people on an election ballot.
A coalition of organizations — including the Phoenix metro chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, the Arizona Young Democrats, Tempe 1st, New Deal Meal, AZ Hugs and Tempe Neighborhoods Together — is working to gather 2,440 signatures in favor of repealing the ordinance by Aug. 1. If that group is successful, the council will then have to send the matter to a ballot referendum for the city's March 10 election, a city clerk's office employee confirmed.
“We’re calling it a sprint,” Phoenix DSA co-chair Dillon Wild told Phoenix New Times on Tuesday. “It’s everyone you’d expect who’s been caught up in Tempe trying to push mutual aid events from its parks.”
The city, under the leadership of City Manager Rosa Inchausti, has used its special events ordinance to crack down on community groups that convene in city parks to distribute food and clothes to unhoused people and connect them to social services. The council has passively consented. It cited AZ Hugs founder Austin Davis with 34 violations of the ordinance, ultimately reaching a plea deal that keeps him out of city parks well into next year.
As the city has considered the ordinance change — which, now passed and going into effect next month, requires permits for gatherings of at least 30 people and gives unelected city officials broad authority to approve or deny such permits — it has eased up a bit, though. Earlier this year, Tempe dropped a similar charge against New Deal Meal founder Ron Tapscott. Notably, Tapscott, Davis and homeless advocate Jane Parker are suing the city over the old version of the ordinance and have indicated the change in the law will not alter their civil rights complaint against Tempe.
The array of groups involved in organizing to put the new law to the people reflects the concern of several local nonprofits over the city's power to arbitrarily choose whether their events can take place or not. For instance, DSA for years has organized the "Really Really Free Market" that allowed people in need to get critical resources like clothes, food, water, baby food and more in Daley Park. But the city cracked down on that event. Sarah Covey and Nate Landis, the co-chairs of mutual aid events, told New Times that in March, the city began sending cops to ensure the event didn't take place, and the city has denied its permit application. The group began having the event in a nearby church, but it also has had to pay hundreds of dollars in insurance costs per event — money that would otherwise be spent on meeting the needs of the people.
"It's expensive. We don't have a very big budget," Landis said. "It's really just neighbors helping neighbors. We're building a community and it's just unfortunate that now we have to spend this money on event insurance instead of hygiene supplies and stuff that actually helps people."
Katherine Kouvelas, the founder of local mutual aid organization Aris Foundation, said she has also experienced capricious denials of her applications. At a bustling Aris Foundation event at First Baptist Church of Tempe on Tuesday, where hundreds of people picked up food, clothes and other necessities, Kouvelas vented her frustration at how Tempe's leaders used to volunteer at her events — but now the city's heavy hand has made her efforts more difficult.
"My impression? It doesn't matter who you are or what you're trying to do, it's subjective now. It's absolutely," Kouvelas told New Times. "They can do what they want. And basically they said that crime follows us, and that's why they've denied it."
Tempe Mayor Corey Woods says the new city ordinance is not discriminatory, despite significant criticism that it could be.
U.S. Department of Labor/Flickr/CC BY 2.0
Ready to move quickly
The effort to spin up a ballot referendum on the updated ordinance on the ballot is off to a quick start. After the council approved it during the early hours of July 2, the coalition already had a petition for referendum locked and loaded. After dawn, they sent it to Tempe’s city clerk, who approved it before the end of the day.Wild said organizers were prepared for a quick council vote. He compared it to the council’s effort to approve a hockey arena development plan, which voters rejected in a referendum in May 2023.
“Tempe City Council learned some lessons from the Coyotes campaign and, in my opinion, made a concerted effort to move this as fast as possible because they knew it was going to be unpopular,” Wild said.
From the ordinance’s introduction to the council to its final vote, there was very little public engagement. Wild said that the city did not seek feedback from any community organizations or neighborhood councils. After six hours of public comment at the July 1 meeting, the council discussed the ordinance for about 17 minutes and approved it.
“From my perspective, this is not discriminatory, this is not an attempt to only support the wealthy — this is an attempt to actually create a more simplified process,” Tempe Mayor Corey Woods said at the time.
Organizers are now canvassing Tempe neighborhoods, knocking doors and tabling at local businesses like Brick Road Coffee.
“We understand that the city council is trying to frame this ordinance as just an update to city laws to simplify things and make it more clear,” Wild said. “But when you actually look at the history of who these permits have been enforced against, it becomes very clear that this is absolutely an effort to push our organizations out of Tempe — mainly because city council believes that doing this kind of organizing in Tempe will attract more unhoused people into our city.”
While Wild said the group has to bring more volunteers on board, the race to 2,440 valid signatures is “still looking very winnable.” The group likely will need to collect significantly more than 2,440 signatures — from Tempe residents only — to survive the inevitable attrition of duplicates or otherwise invalid signatures.
If enough signatures are collected, the city clerk's office confirmed that the measure would go before the city council in August after a summer vacation, and will be put to voters during the next election on March 10, provided the city council doesn’t choose to repeal the ordinance first.
