Last week’s Redmond Reporter article suggested that the city was considering rule changes to allow homeless camping in Redmond parks.

In fact, the city’s Public Safety Committee discussed this issue at its May 16 meeting. Contrary to the article, the focus of our discussion was to amend our current code so our police officers could continue to enforce against those camping on our public lands.

Recent court challenges necessitated this code change to clarify the city’s current policy of prohibiting camping in parks and other public spaces. Specifically, the proposed ordinance provides the Redmond Police Department the tools to prevent camping in our parks and public spaces, and gives officers authority to move people to better forms of shelter.

I hope this helps to clarify residents’ concerns on these issues.

Byron Shutz

Redmond City Council member / Public Safety Committee chair

(Editor’s note: For more details on this story, see “Proposed changes to homeless ordinance” on the Reporter’s website and the May 19 Green Edition.)