Fight the Statehouse Barefoot Rule

Fight the Statehouse Barefoot Rule

On the morning of January 19, 2012, the CRSAB adopted a new rule that says
Attire – Full attire, including shirts and shoes or comparable footwear, are required within the capitol buildings.
They also modified the rule regarding waivers so that it now reads
These rules may be waived by the Executive Director, Chairman, or their designees, for good cause shown. Any person wishing to obtain a waiver of board rules must contact the board, in writing, within a reasonable time in advance of the event.

These rules must now go back before the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR). That meeting has been scheduled for March 8, 2012.

I am asking for folks to write letters to the members of JCARR. Here are the email addresses of JCARR members.

And what would really help is if any Ohio citizens could show up to testify against the new rule. If you can do so, please email me at blog@ahcuah.com.

What we are asking for is that JCARR invalidate the rule.

The core reasons JCARR can use to invalidate a rule are here. To me, the primary reason is that the rule exceeds the scope of CSRAB's statutory authority.

But here are other points that might be useful (and if you think of your own, that is good, too):

The concerns of JCARR really weren't addressed.

If the Statehouse really is that dangerous to barefoot people that you need a rule, how does it suddenly become not dangerous when an exemption is granted?

If the Statehouse has gone 150 years without a barefoot rule, why does it really need one now?

This rule is really too big of an intrusion on the very liberty that the Statehouse was built to preserve.

This inordinate fear of barefoot injuries is based on a myth that people refuse to let go of.

Thank you for any help.

Previous Information

The purpose of this page is to try to coordinate an effort to fight the adoption and implementation of a new Ohio Statehouse rule that would ban bare feet in the building.

The proposed rule action can be found here. What it would do is add a new rule that states:
Attire – Full attire, including shirts and footwear, are required within the capitol buildings.

The CRSAB (Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board) is the Board that is promulgating the rule, and it has to go through legislative approval before the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR).
The Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review held a hearing on the rule on December 19, 2011. At that time, due to your previous efforts and my testimony, the rule got put into the "To Be Refiled" status. That means that the CSRAB gets a chance to go back and change their language. [You can see my testimony here, and the meeting minutes from JCARR here.]

There will be a meeting of the CSRAB on Thursday, January 19, to consider new language. They've modified the "Attire" part to now read:
Attire – Full attire, including shirts, shoes or comparable footwear, are required within the capitol buildings.
They've also modified Section I to read: That change was supposedly to address the concern of JCARR that the board meets only quarterly, so how could somebody needing a waiver to come to the Statehouse barefoot get one in a reasonable fashion? You will also see that the changes really address very few of the concerns of JCARR.

It's not too late to write to the CSRAB folks. A list of their addresses is HERE. (If you've already written, check for the NEW! or UPDATED! entries and add those.)

You might want to stress that

The concerns of JCARR really weren't addressed.

If the Statehouse really is that dangerous to barefoot people that you need a rule, how does it suddenly become not dangerous when an exemption is granted?

If the Statehouse has gone 150 years without a barefoot rule, why does it really need one now?

This rule is really too big of an intrusion on the very liberty that the Statehouse was built to preserve.

This inordinate fear of barefoot injuries is based on a myth that people refuse to let go of.

There is more information in these blog posts.

If there are any Ohio barefooters who can attend that meeting and talk to Board members before it, that would really help. You can email at blog@ahcuah.com for more information.

After the CSRAB meets, the next meeting of JCARR is January 23. We'll have to see what happens on January 19 to know what, if anything, we'll have to do with JCARR again.