GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Grand Rapids city commissioners again can't agree on how to regulate panhandling in the city.

A proposed ban on panhandling from cars at intersections during rush hour only gained the support of the commissioner who introduced it - outgoing First Ward representative Dave Shaffer, as well as his First Ward colleague Jon O'Connor.

The proposed ban failed in a 4-2 vote at the commission's meeting Tuesday, Dec. 19. Mayor Rosalynn Bliss, Second Ward commissioners Ruth Kelly and Joe Jones as well as Third Ward Commissioner Senita Lenear voted against it. Third Ward Commissioner Dave Allen missed the meeting due to illness.

"I think it's an overreaching governmental policy," Lenear said. "For a city our size, the population that this is targeting is such a small population that instead of having a law created to address this, I think we need creative solutions."

Lenear said she's not interested in an inevitable lawsuit over the law.

Panhandling in Grand Rapids used to be banned outright -- but the city lost a lawsuit in 2012 after a judge ruled panhandling is protected by the First Amendment.

Local representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union have warned the city this December that the ban they were considering would likely trigger a lawsuit.

The proposed law, as introduced by Shaffer, would have prohibited people from soliciting money from drivers within 30 feet of an intersection between 5 and 7 p.m. Soliciting money from drivers would have also been banned within 30 feet of eight intersections at all times.

City officials have been working on reducing pedestrian deaths in the city, and paid a consultant to analyze pedestrian crash data. Shaffer's proposal was based off of the analyses -- but the report never showed whether pedestrian crashes involved panhandlers.

Residents spoke out overwhelmingly in opposition to the proposed ban at a public hearing Dec. 12 and again at the Tuesday meeting -- with the exception of former First Ward Commissioner Walt Gutowski, who spoke up at public comment.

"Bridge Street is quite the place to be now, so it's become a popular spot to panhandle," Gutowski said of the scene outside his Swift Printing business on the West Side. "The particular gentleman who was panhandling yesterday was going out, across traffic, doing little dances, coming back. It clearly is not safe to them or to the motorists."

Gutowski was among half of the commissioners who voted for panhandling regulations in 2014 -- the last time the body attempted to place restrictions on solicitation. The proposal in 2014 failed in a 3-3 vote.

Kelly also served on the commission in 2014.

"I was a no vote then and I remain a no vote," Kelly said. "I too believe it is the wrong approach to addressing panhandling."

Tuesday was Shaffer's last meeting as city commissioner, as he was term limited from running again. Voters elected Kurt Reppart to fill his seat starting in January.