I can't remember when I was first introduced to the reality that laws are passed by City Councils, without being checked for impact or legality. Some laws are simply written up and passed. I remember being stunned. I also remember that there should be some legal function which keeps this from occurring, but there isn't. In fact, as far as I can tell, a City Council Member is not personally liable for such an action.

What brings this topic to mind today, is reading through some of the news on Homeless laws and coming across this line.

LAS VEGAS - City officials have made it illegal to sleep within 500 feet of urine or feces, but the city attorney says the new law was passed by mistake and won't be enforced.

"...the city attorney says the new law was passed by mistake"? Mistake?

I suppose that is how the law got passed that makes it illegal to give drinking water to the homeless in San Diego. It is just another mistake, and really shouldn't be looked at so seriously.  The 10 News web site has an article on this...

So, we have laws being passed which were not intentional, or meant to be enforced if ... what..  unless  someone says "Hey! That's just stupid!".

Apparently this is exactly the case.

Believe it or not, there are many laws passed by the San Diego City Council which are not meant to be enforced against the general population, but are targeted toward the homeless and other segments. Mostly these "good ol' boy" laws are targeted at the homeless, because most of the homeless don't have the resources to tell them to knock it off. You can see this in action with the laws preventing feeding the homeless in city parks. The law actually says that it is illegal to pass out food to a group of people who are not related to you, in a city park, which is understood by the council to mean, "The Homeless".

What is also clearly understood by the passing of this law, is it is not to be used against City Council Members when they are having a bar-b-que at the park to raise money for their re-election campaign, nor is it to be used against Fireman doing a pancake breakfast.

All of these laws, when challenged by the court, normally in a costly class action law suit against the city of San Diego for yet another illegal Good-Ol-Boy law, are deemed unconstitutional, making the city liable for damages.

What is most disturbing is that, these laws are becoming more prevalent, and they are costing the tax payers large sums in law suits and legal fees. What should be passed, is a law that states a Council Member is legally responsible for 10% of the damages incurred by the city for the enforcement of his/her illegal law. Such a law would bring a stop to the legal fee hemorrhaging in our budget, and put an end to the creation of laws, we don't need and which can not be enforced anyway.