Title
Ordinance to Govern Permitting of Events on Public Property for the Republican National Convention
Action
Action:
Adopt an ordinance authorizing the City Manager or his designee to implement content-neutral permitting procedures for allocating City streets and City property during the 2020 Republican National Convention
Body
Staff Resource(s):
Patrick Baker, City Attorney’s Office
Explanation
§ The Republican National Convention (the "RNC"), to be held in Charlotte from August 24, 2020, through August 27, 2020, is expected to bring many visitors to Charlotte. Some of these visitors will want to participate in parades, protests, public assemblies, and similar activities on public streets and other City properties.
§ As a result, there may be significant, and sometimes conflicting, demands for use of City-controlled public spaces during the RNC.
§ Special procedures, such as lotteries, may be necessary or useful for fairly and transparently allocating limited public spaces for the RNC and for easing the administrative burden on City staff in allocating those spaces. Convention-specific procedures were used successfully by Charlotte for permitting during the 2012 DNC and have been used by other cities hosting national political conventions.
§ This ordinance would expressly authorize the City Manager or his designee to implement RNC-specific permitting procedures for City-controlled public spaces. These procedures would be limited to those that help allocate limited public space. This ordinance would not authorize the City Manager or his designee to impose any other types of requirements or restrictions on events during the RNC.
§ This ordinance confirms that any RNC-specific permitting procedures implemented by the City Manager or his designee must be reasonable, content-neutral (meaning that these procedures will apply without regard to the views that a permit applicant wants to express), and otherwise in compliance with all state and federal laws.
§ This ordinance would authorize the City Manager or his designee to apply these RNC-specific permitting procedures only to events happening during the period from the third day before the RNC officially opens until the third day after the RNC officially closes.
Attachments
Attachment(s)
Ordinance