OTHELLO - Othello is asking companies to be careful with circulars after a councilmember found a pile of them in his neighborhood.

The city council reviewed a proposed ordinance prohibiting handbills from being "posted, thrown, scattered, tossed or deposited upon any street, alley or public place or in or upon any vehicle."

The proposal came after Councilmember Ken Johnson brought in a bag of circulars he found laying on the road, lawns and porches.

City Administrator Ehman Sheldon asked the council for more clarification about what they wanted, saying the proposal may not deal with the situation exactly.

Mayor Tim Wilson asked if the city could make community groups exempt from the prohibition.

"Let's say the school is putting on a harvest party ... is there a way for them to go around and post things?" he asked. "It seems like how this is written they wouldn't be able to do that."

Sheldon and City Attorney Katherine Kenison said the proposal would affect all groups. Kenison said handbill ordinances have been the focus of court cases for about a century.

"The biggest objection that cities have had to handbills is either they're being posted on city property, like utility poles ... or they're being distributed on the street, or left on people's windshields on their cars ... Where they get blown away into the street and cause litter," she said.

City officials need to consider how they would justify a handbill ordinance, Kenison said. The proposal presented at the meeting was aimed at limiting littering.

"That would prohibit your local organizations from doing the same thing," she said. "Everyone would be treated equally whether they were an advertisement, for profit or a youth group advertising their harvest party."

Other cities have chosen to pursue ordinances which go further and prohibit distribution of handbills on private property, Kenison said.

"A lot of times you'll see a house that maybe is not being occupied, they've got a lot of these stacking up on their front porch or being shoved in their mailbox," she said.

When dealing with the distribution on private property it introduces other complications, Kenison said.

Johnson's primary concern was the accumulation of circulars on private property, he said. His issue was with commercial advertising rather than community groups.

"All the stuff that I gathered up was within a four to five house area within my block," he said. "I do have one of those empty houses in my street and it piled up over there ... You can drive around on Tuesday or Wednesday and see these all over the street."

Trying to stop the distribution of circulars onto private property is a little more difficult, Kenison said. Some cities do have ordinances, but they haven't been tested in the courts.

"There are certain requirements that the land owners have to undertake,' she said. "There is only a limited amount that the city can do on private property."

Councilmember Ken Caylor said limiting circulars on private property could hurt legitimate businesses when they want to distribute a flier.

"It used to be that they'd take care of that, but like you said they're throwing things everywhere," Caylor said. "I know we made a comment in here about getting approval from city hall before you do something like that. Maybe that would help."

Limiting handbills could affect campaign materials delivered during elections. Caylor pointed out a lot of door hangers and other items are handed out during elections.

"I don't think we want to jeopardize that from happening," he said.

Wilson repeated his earlier question, asking whether it was possible to limit commercial circulars delivered onto private property.

Kenison said the city could tie some additional requirements to business licenses.

"As far as distributing them, you're going to have to treat commercial the same as the youth groups or the church groups," she said.

Councilmember Dan Dever disagreed with putting a new ordinance in place, asking whether it would be any more effective than the city ordinance on yard sale signs.

"They're supposed to be taken down within a day," he said. "Then you drive around town on Tuesday, there are yard sale signs sticking out of a box with a rock in it. They don't pick them up."

Dever pointed out the code enforcement officer has a lot of work already, and the city would be adding another task.

"I don't like the fliers. I don't like the advertisement things that come out ... It ends up in my driveway or up in my yard," he said. "I'm not sure we're really going to solve the problem with this kind of thing. It just adds another layer of restriction on people in town."

Kenison agreed, saying the ordinance wouldn't likely change people's behavior simply by enacting the ordinance.

"You would have to follow through with enforcement and enforcement is expensive," she said.

Councilmember Charles Garcia agreed with Dever, saying it seemed like it would take a lot of work to enforce the proposed ordinance.

"Our ordinance guy is not going to be able to handle that along with everything else that he's got on his plate right now," he said. "I'm not saying that I agree with the fact that they're laying all over the street."

Councilmember Genna Dorow said to enforce it, the city would need to put a large fine on it, and she didn't think anyone wanted a large fine.

Garcia suggested sending a letter to the companies distributing the circulars, asking them to make sure people leave the papers in a place where they won't cause a mess.

"We don't mind them going about their business, just do it in a tactful way," he said.