Mayor Paul Soglin is looking to crack down on the homeless people who spend time in the City County building lobby with a proposal to ban loitering in the building.

Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said employees in the building have expressed “serious concerns” about homeless people loitering in the lobby.

A City Country Liaison Committee is working to address Soglin’s proposal, which would hire a security guard to police the lobby and remove the homeless, Verveer said.

Casey Becker, assistant to Dane County Executive Joe Parisi, said the security guard would cost approximately $42,000 split between the city and county.

On two different accounts, Verveer said he has witnessed small-scale fights break out in the lobby of the building. He said he has also had to call 911 because of someone passing out due to intoxication.

“It’s a complicated issue,” he said. “I don’t come down on the side of the mayor in terms of the specifics. However, I do agree with him that there are problems with many of the visitors to the City County building.”

Parisi said he opposes the mayor’s proposal in an email to The Badger Herald.

He said the homeless do not cause harm, and Soglin’s idea may reach a little too far.

“The City County building is a public building, and I err on the side of access rather than restriction,” Parisi said. “We have many visitors every day. Requiring people who are otherwise causing no harm to have to demonstrate they have an acceptable reason to be in the lobby seems a bit extreme.”

Brenda Konkel, a former city alder and advocate for the homeless, said Soglin’s proposal to prohibit homeless people from loitering in the City-County Building is “putting a damper on democracy.”

She said people should not have to prove their right to use public places.

“These are public spaces the public should be able to use,” Konkel said.

Verveer said his biggest concern revolves around the issue of people who come to spend time in the City Council building because they have been banned from other public buildings due to behavioral issues, citing chronic alcoholics who come and cause a disturbance.

Parisi said these behavioral issues are what should be brought to the forefront, not the loitering itself.

“Any policy should be based on behavior — for example, alcohol consumption, fighting or other behaviors that pose a threat to others or cause damage — rather than on the fact that someone simply wishes to come in from the weather,” he said.

Konkel agreed with Parisi, adding City Council should spend money on programs to treat alcoholism instead of on a security guard.

“We need to help these people instead of kicking them around to different places,” she said.

Verveer proposed creating an information desk in the lobby of the building that could be staffed by homeless individuals, giving them a purpose for spending time in the building.

Konkel said the city should provide a day center for homeless people to go when they cannot get into shelters. Although there is money in the county budget to create a day center, one still does not exist, she said.

Regardless, Verveer said he would be surprised if the City County Liaison Committee supported the mayor’s plan for a security guard.