On Monday, Pasadena’s City Council is expected to pass an ordinance that amends the Pasadena Municipal Code with new prohibitions against “camping” in public parks and facilities and aggressive panhandling over objections that the ordinance criminalizes homelessness.

The proposed ordinance will be presented for a second, final reading and vote at about 6:45 p.m., or shortly thereafter.

The ordinance amends Pasadena’s municipal Code to prohibit anyone from camping, erecting, maintaining or occupying “any tent, lodge, structure temporary or makeshift shelter, or unattended installation or display” in any public park or area.

The amendments will also make it unlawful for anyone to place “personal property on any street, alley, sidewalk or crosswalk so as to hinder or obstruct any person” from freely passing, and to “impede the progress or another or hinder or obstruct any person from freely passing for the purpose of soliciting, asking, or begging for money.”

The City Council received a number of letters from organizations and individual opposed to some of the provisions in the proposed amendments, objecting that the ordinance would, in effect, “criminalizing” homelessness.

“Punitive policies that are essentially designed to drive the homeless out of town are not supported by many in Pasadena,” Marge Nichols, President of the League of Women Voters Pasadena Area, wrote to the City Council when the ordinance went through first reading. “More constructive and compassionate approaches are needed, and identifying such policies is a process that could well be done with the involvement of citizens, nonprofits and programs in other cities.”

Other groups and individuals said the provision that bans anyone from approaching any person in a “threatening, coercive or menacing manner” for the purpose of soliciting or begging for money needs to be clarified before the ordinance is passed.

“An ordinance banning camping and an excessively vague ban on threatening panhandling is a step in the wrong direction, and is uncharacteristic of the spirit of excellence that I experience working in Pasadena,” resident Griffin Hatlestad wrote on November 4. “Now is the time to continue taking steps forward.”

City Attorney Michel Beal Bagneris said the proposed ordinance will further clarify the City’s current regulations.

Also at Monday’s City Council meeting, an ordinance related to the City’s transit oriented development program will be tackled in first reading.

Other major issues up for discussion at the City Council meeting include a recommendation from the Pasadena Department of Human Resources for the City Council to adopt resolutions that will establish the salary and benefits for job classifications not represented by an employee association or union. These classifications include executive management positions at City Hall, non-represented management positions and non-represented non-management classifications.

An Agenda Report for the City Council Monday said the Human Resources Department has recommended a two percent cost-of-living increase in the salaries of these classifications, effective November 14.

The City Council meets at the Council Chamber at City Hall, starting with a closed session at 5:30 p.m., with the public meeting beginning at 6:30 p.m.