Bridgeton sued over May Day parade fee CAMDEN -- A farm worker's organization and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Monday against the city of Bridgeton to contest a fee charged this year to hold a small peaceful parade on the city's streets and sidewalks. In a 12-page complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Camden, CATA, or the Farm Workers Support Committee, challenged the more than $1,500 bill city officials presented the organization for a parade and rally held in the city May 1. The fee, not charged by the city for May Day parades held by the organization in previous years, was an unconstitutional fee on free speech and other "expressive activity in public forums," according to the complaint filed by Frank Corrado, an attorney representing CATA as a volunteer, "This fee amounts to a user's tax on free speech that is unconstitutional," Corrado said in a statement released by CATA and the ACLU. "Bridgeton is responsible for providing police and other government services for all forms of use of its public streets, including marches or parades," Corrado said in the press release. "Imposition of these fees will mean that only the wealthy will be afforded the right to speak out on issues, and our Constitution thankfully forbids that." City Solicitor Theodore Baker didn't return calls for comment, and Mayor James Begley and other city officials could not be reached Monday afternoon. The parade and a rally held at the parade's end by members of CATA and its supporters in the community have been used in recent years as a forum for issues affecting the primarily Hispanic farm worker community in southern New Jersey. When it was approached by city officials this year requesting the fee of $2,000, CATA offered to shorten the parade to eliminate or reduce the need for police overtime the city said the parade would cause, according to the complaint. While no agreement was reached by May 1, the city said it would send CATA a bill after costs were calculated, although the organization never relinquished its right to challenge the constitutionality of the fee. The parade and rally, held on an empty lot in back of the police station owned by the city, attracted between 200 and 300 people, according to the complaint. The event was peaceful and lasted less than four hours. The fee came in at $1,587.43, an amount CATA's directors said the organization couldn't afford and shouldn't have to pay for use of city streets and sidewalks to express constitutionally protected speech. The complaint was filed because CATA plans to hold "events in the city similar to the May 1 march and rally it has held during the past two years and it intends to engage in other expressive activity" in the city to "advance its purpose of advocating for immigrant workers." Because CATA is a nonprofit organization with limited funds, the complaint said the organization "simply cannot afford a fee of $1,500 or more each time it engages in constitutionally protected expressive activity in the city's public spaces." The city also is charging other groups fees for events, such as the July 14 Triathlon, a daylong event that charges participants an entry fee. Bruce Wilson, a member of the Triathlon's committee, said the group still was negotiating with the city. He declined to comment on the amount the city was requesting or the progress of the negotiations. The city has a "park event fee" of $500 plus the cost of extraordinary expenses for events held in the city's 1,100-acre park. But CATA board member and Bridgeton resident Mariza Ibarra said the May 1 event was a simple march that didn't use any of the city park's facilities. "I don't see the logic the city of Bridgeton is using in prohibiting our rights to free expression that we all have living in this great country," Ibarra said in a prepared statement. |