SOCIAL CIRCLE, Ga.  – Faced with numerous inquiries regarding the potential staging of local demonstrations reacting to the U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center set to be established in a 1-million square-foot warehouse inside the city limits, the Social Circle City Council will hold a special called meeting Monday (Feb. 23) to discuss implementation of a public assembly ordinance applying to public property within the city limits. The meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. in the Community Room at 138 E. Hightower Trail.

The issue appeared on the agenda for the council’s Tuesday (Feb. 17) meeting as a new business item titled “Proposed Ordinance Regulating Public Assembly,” but there was no proposal for the council to review. Instead, City Attorney Jay Crowley pointed the council to the ordinance now in effect in the northwest Georgia city of Rome as a good template for a local ordinance.

The city’s legal team was directed recently to review city ordinances dealing with public assembly. The request came as inquiries about the possibility of local assemblies and protests of the ICE facility – planned for an existing warehouse at the intersection of East Hightower Trail and Social Circle Parkway recently purchased by the federal government – began coming in to the city government.

Social Circle City Manager Eric Taylor could not say Tuesday exactly how many inquiries the city had received, noting that the inquiries had been fielded by a number of city government departments.

The requested review found the existing city code does not include any public assembly regulations, which prompted the city attorney’s suggestion that the council use the Rome ordinance as a starting point.

The existing code of ordinances for Social Circle does include a section on the use of public property for parades, film production and related activities that does denote a permit requirement “for parade, assembly, demonstration, road closing or related activity on public property or on public roads.”

The Rome ordinance, however, is particularly detailed in connection with public assemblies, defining them as “any outdoor demonstration, rally, protest, march, parade, motorcade, or procession of any kind, or similar display, consisting of persons, animals, or vehicles, or a combination thereof, having a common purpose, design, destination, or goal … .”

Rome’s ordinance goes on to note that the intent of the city commission in the assembly ordinance is to “… comply in all aspects with the with the First Amendment to the United States Constitution … .”

On a technical level, the Rome ordinance requires permits, regardless of the number of participants, for assemblies on sidewalks, streets or other public rights of way, and for assemblies blocking entry to, or exit from, public facilities. Applications for permits must be filed with the police chief no less than four days before the event is to be held.

The Rome ordinance goes on to take note of the city’s intent “… not to unduly burden, suppress, or regulate the content or message of any speech or expressive conduct … .” The ordinance does, though, include language prohibiting some conduct during demonstrations, such as not carrying any weapon, not using electronic sound amplification except with prior approval of the police chief, and not carrying ballons filled with water, paint, or anything other than air, oxygen or helium.

In Social Circle, by the time of the upcoming Monday meeting, a local ordinance proposal, likely borrowing heavily from the Rome ordinance, will be available from the city’s legal counsel for the city council’s review and discussion.

During initial Tuesday discussion of a proposed public assembly ordinance, there wasn’t any particular urgency on the part of the council. Councilman Steve Shelton said he wanted to have time to read, and make adjustments to, the Rome ordinance prior to any council decision, and Adam Conavay, newly elected in November, sought confirmation that city staff was not expecting a vote at Tuesday’s meeting.

A somewhat frustrated Taylor, sensing a potential delay in getting public assembly regulations enacted, asked the council, “What do we do in the meantime?”

“I think time is of the essence with this, based on some of the phone calls we’ve been getting,” Taylor told the council.

Gareth Fenley, a cofounder of Indivisible Boldly Blue, a local part of the nationwide progressive Indivisible movement, was at Tuesday’s council meeting along with a small group of young people, all handing out information noting reasons to oppose the ICE detention facility, projected to house as many as 8,500 people awaiting deportation. The information noted that the city’s water and sewer infrastructure is inadequate for such a large facility, its police and fire departments aren’t sufficient to cover the additional population, and the facility is located just 4,000 feet from an elementary school.

Fenley indicated that local progressive groups would be interested in the council’s upcoming Monday meeting on a proposed public assembly ordinance.

“We certainly always want to know what’s going on,” Fenley said.

In other developments at Tuesday’s council meeting related to the ICE detention facility, council members reiterated the city’s clear opposition to the facility, expressed regularly since officials learned late last year from a Washington Post report that Social Circle was among cities across the country under consideration for ICE detention facilities.

Longtime council member Traysa Cody Price was critical of the federal government’s lack of response to the city’s concerns about the facility, saying the city has “been disrespected on so many levels” as federal officials have “made all the decisions” on the detention center.

“We are fighting,” Price said. “We are trying to do what we can do.”

For his part, Shelton said, “I don’t think anybody agrees with how the city has been treated.”

Conavay was also critical of governmental responses to the city’s concerns about the detention center, saying city officials “have gotten more information from the press and the public than we have … from the state and federal level.”

Asked about his contacts with governmental officials, Taylor said he recently spoke with someone “pretty high” in the federal Department of Homeland Security, but noted that the official appeared to treat the conversation as a “check the box” exercise.

Overall, Taylor said, his “general impression” is that the federal government’s move to establish a detention center in Social Circle has been handled “in a very rushed way.”