Cheyenne City Council on Monday sat through hours of residents blasting them over administrative warrants to inspect homes and businesses. \u201cThis is textbook overreach\u201d one local said before the council voted 6-3 to approve the ordinance\u2019s second reading.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
By Greg Johnson<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHEYENNE \u2014 A proposal to allow the city\u2019s Fire Department and top building official to get administrative warrants to enter people\u2019s homes and businesses for safety inspections may have good intentions behind it, but that doesn\u2019t make them anything shy of government overreach, nearly two dozen residents told Cheyenne City Council on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The council got an earful for about two hours from locals against the warrants, saying they\u2019re unconstitutional, unwelcome and, in a stand-your-ground state like Wyoming, downright dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe can twist the law, twist these things up (to make them legal), but at the end of the day, this is textbook government overreach,\u201d said resident Exie Brown. \u201cGood intentions do not make good policy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s the give-an-inch, take-a-mile style of governing, Brown said. If some officials are given the ability to get warrants to enter people\u2019s homes, where does it stop?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDo we have selective enforcement under the guise of safety?\u201d Brown asked rhetorically. \u201cThis policy is stuff you see in San Francisco, Seattle, Boulder, Fort Collins, and with that new Communist mayor out of New York. We are not that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe need to stop trying to Colorado or California our Wyoming.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The council ultimately voted 6-3 in favor of the ordinance\u2019s second reading Monday, but many members said they\u2019ve heard the uproar from residents and that they want the proposed ordinance to be more specific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI really believe if this is something that is really felt to be needed \u2026 that it probably needs to have some amendments made and to be reworked,\u201d said Councilwoman Dr. Michelle Aldrich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said the ordinance was crafted with \u201cgood intentions,\u201d but she also acknowledges that it needs to be more specific to alleviate fears that officials will misuse the warrants to conduct illegal searches of people\u2019s homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Wyoming, that\u2019s asking for trouble, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think we may be putting our employees at risk with the stand-your-ground law,\u201d she said, \u201cif they approach a door and try to enter a property with an administrative warrant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She\u2019ll support the ordinance if it\u2019s \u201camended significantly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was the tone from most of the 21 people who spoke to the council about the ordinance \u2014 all against.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gary Pugh said he spent 20 years in the U.S. Air Force defending the Constitution and that he can\u2019t defend this proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen government can enter your home simply because it wants to check on you, you don\u2019t really own that home,\u201d he said. \u201cYou are just borrowing it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That view was echoed by Kathy Scigliano, who said approving the expansion of administrative warrants sets a dangerous precedent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOnce government power is expanded, it is rarely rolled back,\u201d she said. \u201cCalling these warrants \u2018non-criminal\u2019 does not change what they are \u2014 government permission to enter private property without consent, and in some cases without notice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cheyenne resident John Frank wondered if there are other motives behind the ordinance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because the law already addresses safety concerns in the community, \u201cit makes me wonder as to the real motivation behind this proposed ordinance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clarence Fisher took that hypothetical further, wondering what happens if officials gain entry into a home to deal with a specific concern, but then see something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They go in, \u201cbut then see something else or they don\u2019t like something else that\u2019s going on in that residence,\u201d Fisher said. \u201cOr, they don\u2019t like that person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n DG Reardon brought up a common theme, that he would be OK with expanding the warrants if they were specifically to address abandoned buildings in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Erin Edwards questioned whether there\u2019s enough of a problem accessing unsafe buildings to warrant a city ordinance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you\u2019re talking one out of every thousand, it\u2019s probably not warranted,\u201d she said. \u201cBut if you\u2019re talking, maybe, 10 out of 10 requests are denied, then there\u2019s an issue. Maybe there\u2019s consideration for a conversation at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She also wondered about the threshold of \u201creasonableness\u201d as outlined in the proposal \u2014 what is \u201creasonable?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, if people aren\u2019t home, will the government force its way into a person\u2019s home or business?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf they\u2019re at work, how are they going to be there to advocate for themselves?\u201d Edwards asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then there\u2019s other concerning language in the ordinance like \u201creasonably necessary to determine, discover, or verify the condition of the property.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWell, the words \u2018discover\u2019 and \u2018determine\u2019 imply that you don\u2019t have any proof of issues,\u201d she said. \u201cIt implies that there\u2019s a fishing expedition to try to find reason to gain entry to the property.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The temperature in the council chamber rose about halfway through public comment when Councilman Lawrence Wolfe tried to call out a local attorney \u2014 Caleb Wilkins \u2014 who advocated against the ordinance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMr. Wilkins, nice to see you,\u201d Wolfe said. \u201cYou\u2019re, in fact, suing the state of the city of Cheyenne, aren\u2019t you? On behalf of \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s when Councilman Mark Moody sitting to Wolfe\u2019s left broke in, saying Wolfe was out of order to try and question Wilkins on another issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPoint of order, Mr. Mayor,\u201d Moody said, addressing Mayor Patrick Collins. \u201cThis has nothing to do with this ordinance and public hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would agree,\u201d the mayor said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wilkins then said that as an attorney, he\u2019s bound by rules that would prohibit him from answering Wolfe\u2019s questions about specific litigation in a public forum like a council meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo, they would not,\u201d pressed Wolfe, who\u2019s also an attorney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPoint of order, Mr. Mayor,\u201d Moody again interjected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The mayor again admonished Wolfe: \u201cMr. Wolfe, it has nothing to do with the business at hand. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMr. Mayor, it has everything to do with this gentleman\u2019s credibility in front of us,\u201d Wolfe countered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier in the meeting, Wolfe interrupted resident Steve Melia\u2019s testimony, asking the mayor to \u201cplease ask the witness to remove his hat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Melia gave Wolfe a disapproving frown as he removed his camouflage baseball cap with an American flag on the front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGovernment overreach?\u201d he commented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wolfe\u2019s conduct at the meeting also drew the attention of state Rep. Ann Lucas, a Laramie County Republican.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although she no longer lives in Cheyenne city limits, she posted to her Facebook page that she\u2019s \u201cappalled at the egregious lack of decorum and civility on the part of Councilman Wolfe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She later told Cowboy State Daily that it\u2019s not a good look, and that people who hold public offices need to keep their focus on working for the people, not the other way around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe was kind-of badmouthing citizens from his seat,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before voting on the proposed ordinance, the council discussed the concerns they heard Monday and for the past week leading up to the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Councilman Ken Esquibel admitted the ordinance needs work and that the concerns residents have are valid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it\u2019s also true that the Cheyenne Fire Department and building official need these warrants for the legitimate safety of city residents, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He told an emotional story involving his brother, a Vietnam veteran, who has a fireplace that\u2019s detached from his house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Esquibel had to have the city go to the home and red-tag the fireplace to protect his brother and the neighbors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the embers from that fireplace sparked a fire that burned down someone else\u2019s house and the city could\u2019ve done something about it, \u201cI think you\u2019d be a lot more pissed off than you are now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have real-life experience on how this can actually save people\u2019s lives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wolfe said people may complain about government overreach now, but they sing a different tune if they have a problem neighbor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you have a house next door to you and your neighbor is not taking care of it, what are you going to do?\u201d he asked. \u201cYou\u2019re going to call the city, and you\u2019re going to ask the city to go and fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also said that courts around the United States have already found administrative warrants like Cheyenne is considering legal, and that \u201cthere\u2019s a lot of misunderstanding about this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe don\u2019t need to hear more discussion about how this is government overreach,\u201d Wolfe added. \u201cThat tells us nothing. We know all that. Come in and tell us exactly what you would like to see done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The council finally voted to advance the ordinance on second reading, with most members saying they want to see some changes to the language when it comes back in two weeks for a third and final reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A majority vote in favor of the third reading will make the proposal law in Cheyenne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those voting for the ordinance were: Pete Laybourn, Jeff White, Lawrence Wolfe, Tom Segrave, Dr. Kathy Emmons, and Ken Esquibel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those voting no were: Dr. Michelle Aldrich, Mark Moody, and Dr. Mark Rinne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If this is approved at the third reading it becomes law for the city. And from this recap, we can see the bad actors, but what’s the play? Is it just to expand the city’s powers and a backdoor system for a warrant? Or is this related to developers and seen as a way to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wyoming"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15288"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15289,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15288\/revisions\/15289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Cheyenne](\"https:\/\/cowboystatedaily.imgix.net\/City-Council-Wolfe-and-Wilkins.jpg?ixlib=js-3.8.0&q=75&auto=format%2Ccompress\")
![\"Cheyenne](\"https:\/\/cowboystatedaily.imgix.net\/City-Council-2.jpg?ixlib=js-3.8.0&q=75&auto=format%2Ccompress\")
Residents All Against It<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Councilman Wolfe<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What The Council Said<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How They Voted<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n