APP:

LAKEWOOD � The debate over how to handle day laborers here has grown so thorny, some have now suggested the Township Committee may be targeting the per-diem workers with a new ordinance that bans public urination. In comments that surprised several committee members, a pair of advocates for the day laborer community complained that the ordinance seems to paint the men with a negative connotation. “It does not express any effort to build a positive relationship with Lakewood’s newest community,” Alice Kelsey, a day laborer supporter, said at last week’s Township Committee meeting. Minister Steven Brigham, a community activist, added at the meeting that if the township believes there is a problem with public urination, then portable bathrooms should be provided downtown. “If (people are) good enough to come into this town and pay rent,” Brigham said, “then they’re good enough to to be supplied what they need.”…Kelsey said the new urination ordinance � which is subject to a public hearing next week � could be seen as punitive, especially after months of discussion about how to solve the dilemma without punishing the men who line Clifton Avenue for work….But Mayor Meir Lichtenstein said the township’s tone remains even. Further, Lichtenstein and other committeemen say they don’t believe it is fair to connect the ordinance and the day laborer community. The ordinance was crafted only because Lakewood has no law banning public urination and there have been complaints made recently about people publicly urinating downtown, Deputy Mayor Raymond G. Coles said. “I’m upset she would take it that way,” Coles said Monday. “It was not done because we wanted to ticket a bunch of people standing on the corner.”… Lichtenstein emphasized he wants to treat all residents with dignity.