Fundraising firefighters booted from streets

Spokane Valley city officials are kicking firefighters’ Fill the Boot fundraising drive out of city streets.

“We’re not telling them they can’t have a fundraiser,” Mayor Rich Munson said. “We’re just telling them they can’t stop traffic to do it.”

Firefighters should ask motorists to pull into a parking lot to make donations to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Munson suggested.

But donations would drop drastically, according to Spokane Valley firefighter John Nelson, coordinator of his union local’s Fill the Boot drive.

“A parking lot, it would destroy the event,” Nelson said.

He said 47 volunteers from Local 876 of the International Association of Fire Fighterscollected about $24,000 from motorists in 6 1/2 hours last July at the intersections of Sprague Avenue and Evergreen Road and of Argonne Road and Montgomery Street.

At a parking lot, Nelson said, “you can spend a whole day out there and not raise $1,000.”

Jana Worthington, director of the Inland Northwest Muscular Dystrophy Association in Spokane, said experience in this region and across the country shows other methods bring in far less money.

When volunteers in Sandpoint moved to the Bonner Mall from a nearby arterial that became too dangerous, collections dropped from $8,000 to $800 and took twice as long, Worthington said.

She said the Spokane Valley prohibition “is very frightening to us” because Local 876’s collection is about one-fourth of the annual total from drives in Spokane and Stevens counties.

Worthington said the Fill the Boot program, which began in 1952 in Massachusetts, is the MDA’s largest and oldest fundraiser.

“Really, it’s what makes us what we are,” she said.

The local portion of the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon brought in only about $16,000 last year, compared with approximately $24,000 by Spokane Valley firefighters and $33,000 by Spokane firefighters, Worthington said.

The Spokane Valley boot drive traditionally focuses on the city’s busiest intersection, at Sprague Avenue and Sullivan Road. It moved to Evergreen Road last year because of road construction, but was to have returned to Sullivan Road this summer.

Nelson said the event usually is on a Saturday “so we don’t interrupt business traffic.” He said firefighters take safety precautions and never have had a serious accident.

“I’m not worried about the last time, I’m worried about the next time,” Munson said. “There have been some close calls.”

Nelson said firefighters who step between lanes of cars during red lights try to get back to the curb when the light turns green, but they don’t always succeed.

“Honestly, it’s safer sometimes for the guys just to stay right there,” he said.

Munson called that “an obvious unsafe condition.”

It’s also against the law, Deputy City Attorney Cary Driskell said in an April 3 letter to the Inland Northwest Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Firefighters who hold out their boots for charity probably can’t be charged under the city ordinance that prohibits use of streets or other public places for “aggressive begging.” That requires “intent to intimidate another person into giving money or goods.”

But a disorderly conduct charge is another matter.

Both the city code and state law say anyone who “intentionally obstructs vehicular or pedestrian traffic without lawful authority” is guilty of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor.

Driskell said city officials “communicated our concerns through our former Police Chief Cal Walker” in the past two years, but fundraising organizers apparently misunderstood.

“We will be asking our police force to enforce it this year, but we’d rather not have a confrontation,” Munson said. “That would be unpleasant and unnecessary.”

City Manager David Mercier said the planned enforcement doesn’t apply to high school car washes or other events in which solicitors stay on sidewalks and direct motorists onto parking lots.

“It’s the question of whether or not they are actually in the roadway and impeding traffic, which creates a safety hazard for themselves and the traveling public,” Mercier said.

“We were told many years ago we could not be in the streets, and we’re happy to comply with that,” said Trina Schmid, events manager for the Spokane Guilds’ School and Neuromuscular Center.

Two of 13 locations for the Guilds’ School Foundation’s Community Penny Drive on April 25 will be in Spokane Valley: at the Toys “R” Us parking lot at Broadway and Sullivan roads and the Sterling Savings parking lot at 507 N. Mullan Road.

Schmid said last year’s drive netted a little more than $65,000.

The Spokane Valley City Council’s recent decision to form a committee to study panhandling problems has no connection to Fill the Boot except to underscore the need for impartiality, Munson and other city officials said.

“I can just see the ACLU coming back and saying, ‘If you’re going to enforce it for the panhandlers, why aren’t you going to enforce it for the firefighters?’ ” Munson said.

Also, Driskell said other groups, including junior high and high school cheerleaders have asked to enter city streets for their fundraisers.

“We have consistently told people that our code simply doesn’t allow that,” Driskell said.

Nelson said “people are usually quite happy to see our guys out there,” but Munson said city officials “have received a lot of complaints over the last three years.”

One resident who complained was Joe Schutz, a retired Long Beach, Calif., fire captain. It is “blatant breaking the law,” a nuisance, and “they’re totally making us open to a multimillion-dollar lawsuit,” Schutz said.

Nelson said he’s looking for alternatives, including conducting the drive outside Spokane Valley. However, Nelson hopes the City Council will implement a permit system that would allow groups to solicit in the streets if they provide insurance – as Local 876 does – and have safety training.

“What kind of training do they have in dodging traffic?” Munson objected. “That doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Nelson said he posts signs and places orange cones between traffic lanes. Also, his teams at each corner of a Fill the Boot intersection include someone assigned to keep an eye on safety issues and direct the firefighters who approach motorists.

Munson said he doesn’t like the idea of a permit system, but he planned to meet with Nelson.

City Councilman Bill Gothmann, who has counseled against trying to restrict panhandlers’ First Amendment rights, said he’s willing to consider a permit system. However, Gothmann applauded city staff efforts to apply the existing law equally to panhandlers, firefighters or anyone else who obstructs traffic.

The Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Worthington said Spokane, Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene have permit programs that allow Fill the Boot drives with various restrictions and requirements.

When the Tacoma City Council passed an anti-panhandling ordinance in March 2007, it exempted Fill the Boot drives and other solicitations that complied with the city’s existing permit system for special events.

Spokane’s permit ordinance applies to solicitations, parades, festivals and other organized activities that use or affect streets, sidewalks, parks and other public property.

The $50 permits generally require event sponsors to provide at least $1 million of liability insurance in addition to satisfying conditions set on a case-by-case basis.

Last year, the MDA obtained a permit for Fill the Boot collections at the North Division Y, Francis Avenue and Wall Street, Francis Avenue and Nevada Street, and Mission Avenue and Greene Street.

Police Sgt. Jason Hartman, the city’s special events coordinator, required Spokane firefighters to focus on curb lanes to avoid moving traffic.

He specifically prohibited them from entering traffic to go between vehicles.