San Juan Bautista’s City Council members have a legitimate gripe about uncivil residents who leave behind their dog droppings for others to pick up, but they are taking their concern too far – and showing their mixed priorities – by pursuing a punitive ordinance for residents who neglect their duty.
San Juan’s council is examining a proposal for a so-called “pooper-scooper ordinance” that would allow citations for residents who don’t pick up after their dogs. Officials have talked of enacting an ordinance and potentially giving “authority” for city employees – specifically maintenance workers – to cite residents.
Leave it to San Juan to seriously look into the idea of taking a virtual time machine back to the 19th century Old West and deputizing its citizens to track down the most inconsiderate of pet-owning neighbors.
For a city with continued budget turmoil and an ailing local economy, it looks as though San Juan officials are distracting themselves from the community’s most serious issues and committing severely limited city resources toward a largely unenforceable, absurd idea.
Aside from the fact that giving maintenance workers authority to write citations rides a slippery slope regarding potential precedent – What’s next, deputize the library workers to ticket loud patrons for disorderly conduct? – the city would find it impossible to reasonably enforce the law.
San Juan residents pay for maintenance workers to do maintenance work, not to act as special agents overseeing the public civility division.
Even without the legally questionable idea of giving maintenance workers citation authority – this is the same city that just rounded up much of its iconic feral chickens – San Juan’s leaders have more pressing matters to address and should shift their attention toward the economy.
