Occupy Monterey City Council

While Monterey City Council decides on whether to consider implementing a sit-lie ordinance, people will be sitting and lying outside on the lawn.

The rule, one of several proposals before council tonight, would ban sitting or lying on the sidewalk as part of an effort to curb homelessness.

Homelessness advocates are expected to turn out in great numbers to urge council not to go that route. "I’m here to urge you to resist criminalizing benign behaviors," Carmel resident Vinz Koller told council during a study session on homelessness last month. "If we criminlize benign behaviors, we end up criminzliaing the condition of homelessness."

City Council's two-part agenda, with a 4pm and 7pm meeting separated by a closed session, has homelessness issues on both parts. In the afternoon, they're scheduled to consider policies like a downtown smoking ban, a sit-lie ordinance and overnight parking restrictions.

In the evening, they're scheduled to discuss possibly providing services and outreach to the homeless population.

As activist Timothy Barrett put it in an email to advocates,"The 4:00 meeting is focused on punitive ordinances. The 7:00 meeting…will look at new programs that SERVE the homeless."

Barrett, who chaired a symposium on homelessness Saturday at Monterey Peninsula College, encouraged homeless advocates to show up tonight—and to be patient should the meeting drag on for hours. To keep the public there, he's hosting a potluck dinner in front of City Hall.

"Since the city manager has acted to stymie community participation by dividing the issue into two meetings, there will be a potluck to make people happy, comfortable, and unified between the two meetings," Barrett wrote.

City Manager Fred Meurer was not immediately available for comment.

A number of city staffers attended the symposium, including planners Kim Bui-Burton and Chip Rerig, Police Chief Phil Penko, and councilmembers Alan Haffa, Libby Downey and Nancy Selfridge, among others.

The potluck begins at about 4pm, and will continue until public comment is over, some time after the 7pm meeting begins.