Kansas City's city council turned down an ordinance regulating the distribution of food to the homeless Thursday after it was opposed by social services organizations, including the Salvation Army.
A frustrated Councilman Scott Wagner insisted throughout the debate that the ordinance he spent a year putting together was simply what it appeared to be on the surface – a matter of food safety and sanitation.
But colleague Ed Ford said the discussions that began the process may have doomed the ordinance before it was written.
“Since it started out as a discussion of Kessler Park and the trash and the nuisance that homeless people are to the neighborhood, then it's hard to come with this ordinance and have people not confused,” Ford said.
A number of organizations that serve the homeless remained convinced it was an attempt to make it harder for them to bring meals into areas near homeless camps.
The ordinance failed on a 6-6 tie vote.