At Ease, Mary, It’s Not What You Think

As you may recall, Mary Souza/OpenCDA.com was gasping re: a slight change in Coeur d’Alene’s public container law that she felt could be used to cite someone merely carrying a six-pack over a public right of way into the house. Actually, the law has been around 23 years. City Attorney Mike Gridley responded to a HucksOnline request for more info. E-mails he: “It appears that the prohibition against alcohol on public property was first adopted in 1987. I have no idea who drafted the ordinance or why. I assume that the intent was to prohibit unopened containers of alcohol in city hall, the library, parks, etc. “I agree that this code section could be read to prohibit a closed container of alcohol from any public property, including streets and sidewalks, although I have never heard of it being interpreted or enforced that way by the Police Department or city prosecutors.” More below .

“The ordinance probably needs to be changed to clarify what “public property” means for purposes of this statute. The only change that the current council did on June 1, 2010 was to remove the prohibition against alcohol in parks from 5.08.160 and move it to a code chapter dealing exclusively with parks.

Any further questions?