The Covington City Council voted Monday to table a proposed sagging pants ordinance, after the majority of council members remained unconvinced they could or should legislate how people wear their pants.

Councilman Chris Smith had asked the city attorneys to research the topic, and after the council had a lively debate at a Wednesday work session, Smith asked the council Monday whether it wanted to move forward.

Though Councilwoman Hawnethia Williams opposed sagging pants, she said she was leery of the ramifications.

"They are nasty looking, there's no doubt about that. I hate with a passion, I think it's degrading, especially to older people, to women, to themselves, to their parents, to anybody, but I see it as being a problem for law enforcement. I think there are going to much more pressing issues," Williams said. "I think there's going to be problems when its confrontational, and then you're going to have the issue of whether or not some of these guys or their parents will choose to go the legal way."

Councilwoman Ocie Franklin said she had also brought up the issue previously, but after more research said she didn't believe the city had the right to tell people what to wear.

"I said something to a young man once, ‘Why don't you pull your pants up and wear them right?' and he said ‘I wear them like I want to because they're my pants.' What could I say, they are his pants," Franklin said.

Councilwoman Janet Goodman was more outspoken against any future ordinance.

"I'm sure I see more bottoms than anybody in here because I see them every day at school, but some of you may not realize that those pants you see are not necessarily underpants, because those kids have another pair of pants up under that pair of pants. Kids today have on three and four pairs of pants," Goodman said. "I think it's an adult problem, because the parents allow it. And I don't think there's nothing we can do about that."

Councilman Mike Whatley said he didn't want to be divisive, but also didn't want to run scared from something that could be a problem. He said governments are allowed to outlaw smoking in public and he believed that could be a comparison.

Councilman Keith Dalton placed much of the blame on the parents and said sagging pants were making many residents unemployable.

"It goes back to parents, you can't let inmates run the prison," Dalton said.

Mayor Ronnie Johnston said the school system might be the more appropriate party to deal with the issue, while Goodman suggested the council might be able to tackle the issue by pushing off the "dress for success" idea, which the chamber and others are promoting as they seek to improve the local workforce.

Brian Jenkins, who is running for Rockdale County Chairman, attended Monday's meeting after seeing Covington's saggy pants debate featured on an Atlanta TV station. He said he planned to bring up the same issues in Rockdale County and commended Smith and the council for bringing up the issue.

"It does not correct itself, it only gets worse," said Jenkins, who said he didn't allow sagging pants when he ran a gang prevention program. "You have to send a message. Next year, you never know, young ladies may be wearing their pants' down, then what are you going to do?"

In his memo to the council, Assistant City Attorney Frank Turner Jr. said he believed it was "unlikely, in most instances, that a court would find that wearing baggy pants constitutes constitutionally protected expressive conduct." However, the ordinance could be found unconstitutional.

Several other cities have ordinances that ban sagging pants, but Porterdale recently decided not to pursue an ordinance until the constitutionality of the issue had been decided in court.