SANDPOINT — Following a string of public complaints, five of six City Council members voted Wednesday to amend the City Code regarding aggressive solicitation to also prohibit aggressive handbilling.

Handbill distribution is defined as the passing out of one or more papers or pamphlets containing writings and/or pictures, while solicitation is to request, ask or beg for money or things of value with words or bodily gestures. Anyone in violation of the section would be charged with a misdemeanor.

The amendment to include aggressive handbilling to the ordinance came one week after several community members spoke up during the Aug. 3 City Council meeting about individuals from the Abolish Human Abortion movement bringing signs and pamphlets to the Farmers Market, located at Farmin Park in Sandpoint. Several more community members spoke on the issue this week during the council's special meeting.

Councilman Bob Camp did not approve of the ordinance because he said it is a "very emotional issue" and felt the council needed more time to discuss it.

The five people who spoke at last week's meeting include the Farmers Market President Kelsey Racicot as well as vendors and concerned mothers whose children were approached by the group and allegedly told they "have blood on their hands" and other related comments.

Racicot said some of the biggest complaints come from the microphone usage by the group, and the city recently passed an ordinance that allows a sound level of 70 decibels within 60 feet. She said while the group has been there in the past, this is the first time they have amplified their speech and it is losing business for the Farmer's Market.

She said vendors are having difficulty focusing with the "loud" and "aggressive" nature of the group.

"It's just really not the energy that the market wants to uphold," Racicot said. "We are a place of peace and a place where families can gather, and it really is deterring that."

Mayor Shelby Rognstad said the city has received several letters and phone calls regarding the problem as well.

"We are working on this, so please bear with us," Rognstad told the concerned community members last week. "We are trying to be respectful, obviously, of the First Amendment rights of everyone, but we hear your concerns and we understand that this is a growing problem."

Rognstad said he would direct the city attorney, Scot Campbell, and the police chief to come up with solutions on how to address the issue by this week's meeting. Amending the ordinance to include aggressive handbilling is one solution brought to the council this week, though Campbell said he is "working hard" on the sound ordinance to determine what can be done.

Many of those who spoke at this week's meeting were concerned that handbilling is not as much of a problem as the amplified speech, as well as the "gruesome" images on the signs.

"We have had vendors threaten to leave and customers are threatening to leave and never come back," said Farmers Market manager Patti Fulton.

Fulton said the images and words, such as "murder, kill, hate," she has been told, are giving children nightmares and asking their parents questions like, "Why do they want to murder all the babies and the children?" Some of the mothers who spoke up attested to much of the same reactions by their own children.

Scott Herndon of Sagle spoke to the council this week on behalf of the abolitionists. He addressed some of the allegations made by community members last week who said an altercation occurred and a child had been injured when pushed into a vendor's booth. He said he has video footage of the incident because they wear body cameras. According to Herndon, no child was involved in the incident, but a non-abolitionist took an abolitionist's sign and when a young man went to get the sign back, he was pushed into the vendor booth.

Herndon said he does not distribute handbills himself. He has eight children and said his 8-year-old daughter hands out the pamphlets.

"The most effective way to get handbills into people's hands is to give them to a bunch of little girls, and we give out hundreds," Herndon said.

While he argued against much of the alleged aggressiveness of the abolitionists, council members like Shannon Williamson questioned Campbell regarding what could be done about the images on the signs. Campbell said Sandpoint is not the first city to have an issue with the images, but said the displaying of photographs has always been upheld.

According to the amended ordinance, "aggressive manner" is defined as:

• Intentionally making any nonconsensual physical contact with another person in the course of a solicitation or handbill distribution.

• Approaching or following the person being contacted in a manner that is intended to cause a reasonable person to be intimidated into responding affirmatively to the solicitation or handbill distribution for fear of imminent bodily harm to oneself or another, or damage to or loss of property.

• Continuing to solicit or distribute handbills within five feet of the person being contacted after the person has given or expressed a negative response, if continuing the solicitation or handbill distribution is intended to cause a reasonable person to be intimidated into responding affirmatively to the solicitation or handbill distribution for fear of imminent bodily harm to oneself or another, or damage to or loss of property.

• Intentionally obstructing the safe or free passage of the person being contacted, causing the person, including a person operating a vehicle, to move from his or her intended path to avoid reasonably imminent nonconsensual physical contact with the person making the contact.

• Making any threatening statement or gesture immediately before or during the contact or after a refusal to accept the handbill or make a donation intended to cause a reasonable person to be intimidated into responding affirmatively to the contact for fear of imminent bodily harm to oneself or another, or damage to or loss of property.

During the meeting, Councilman Stephen Snedden moved that the amended ordinance be amended again to include the definition of "contact" as "to offer or touch an individual in order to distribute a handbill or for the purposes of solicitation."