Topeka City Council opts to consider nudity ban proposal
Four other measures will also come up for a vote in coming weeks
Topeka City Councilman Jeff Coen said Tuesday evening that while he enjoys seeing the turtles, snakes and bunny rabbits while he and his 8-year-old daughter bicycle along the Shunga Trail, he also feels concerned.
“I don’t want to have to teach her the birds and the bees if we come across the naked guy,” Coen told fellow council members.
During a discussion by council members over whether they want to consider Coen’s proposed ban on nudity in public places, Coen made reference to a man who reportedly walks nude along the trail.
At the end of the discussion, Mayor Larry Wolgast said there appeared to be a consensus among the council members that they should take up the proposal, so it would be placed on the agenda of an unspecified future council meeting.
RELATED: VIEW ENTIRE COUNCIL MEETING FROM TUESDAY HERE.
The council wasn’t able to see an actual copy of the proposal at Tuesday’s meeting, but they were provided a document describing it last weekend.
Coen read a letter to council members that he had received Tuesday afternoon from a Topekan who expressed reluctance to use the trails or take grandchildren on them “due to the current circumstances.”
Coen said that in addition to the report of the man walking naked on the Shunga Trial, he had seen a photo of a naked man near a Topeka Walmart.
“I think this deserves to be voted on,” he said.
Councilwoman Sylvia Ortiz said she would like to see the nudity ban proposal put at the top of the council’s list of priorities.
“I think we’re starting to get some copycats,” she said. “I really do, because they’re not the same people. I’d like to see us get to this as soon as we can.”
The nudity issue comes back before the council after its members voted last September to send its public health and safety committee a proposal that would make public nudity a misdemeanor. Committee members voted Nov. 18 to send the proposal out of committee with no recommendation regarding whether it should be rejected or approved.
The council also considered banning public nudity in 2005, when a proposal to make that move died for a lack of a second.
Council members on Tuesday evening also agreed by consensus, without taking a vote, to consider four measures at unspecified future meetings. Those are:
¦ Councilman Jonathan Schumm’s proposal to change the city ordinance regarding loud noise, specifically the issue of music being heard from vehicles as they drive through neighborhoods.
¦ Schumm’s proposal to ban aggressive panhandling.
¦ Councilwoman Elaine Schwartz’s proposal to revise the city’s smoking ban ordinance to also include electronic cigarettes.
¦ Schwartz’s proposal to amend a city traffic ordinance to allow the city to impound vehicles for which the driver is unable to show evidence of liability insurance.
Council members also heard an update Tuesday evening on ongoing efforts to revitalize a four-block stretch of S. Kansas Avenue in downtown Topeka.
They later voted 6-3 to approve Schwartz’s proposal to change city fireworks rules to enable the city to grant permission to nonprofit, educational or community service organizations to put on fireworks displays outside the current allowable time frame of July 1 to 4.
Council members Schwartz, Coen, Ortiz, Karen Hiller, Michelle De La Isla and Brendan Jensen voted in favor of the proposal while Schumm, Sandra Clear and Richard Harmon dissented. The change will specifically enable Christ the King Catholic Church, 5973 S.W. 25th, to discharge consumer fireworks Sept. 26 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the opening of its early education center and the 30th anniversary of the dedication of its sanctuary.