Stolen toilet paper. Dumpster diving. Showering in state office buildings and walking around with nothing more on than a towel.

These are among the alleged trespasses committed over the past few weeks by Occupy Boise members living in the tent city on the grounds of the Old Ada County Courthouse at 5th and Jefferson streets.

In testimony before a legislative committee, state Department of Administration Executive Director Teresa Luna also said her agency has incurred about $9,000 in costs since the protest began Nov. 5, including hiring an extra security guard to monitor campers and to remove graffiti.

Luna said complaints about the encampment have lessened in recent weeks.

Members deny the toilet paper thefts, saying they have a large supply of donated or purchased paper (for use in their portable toilets).

“It’s a public building,” said Occupy member Glen E. Garity, who admitted using the showers in a locker room/bathroom at the Len B. Jordan building once in November. He said Tuesday that a sign that now indicates the showers are for Capitol employees only wasn’t there when he used the facility. He said he never walked in a hallway clad only in a towel.

But that isn’t the most serious of challenges that Occupy Boise has faced.

The House State Affairs Committee voted 13-5 to send HB 404 to the full House. A motion failed that would have stopped the bill from taking effect immediately.

Occupy members vow they won’t leave their “indefinite vigil.” The Idaho Attorney General’s Office offered an informal opinion this week that the bill is constitutional, but Occupy members believe the Idaho Constitution offers greater protections for redressing grievances to the government than does the U.S. Constitution.

“What the attorney general failed to address ... was the whole freedom-of-assembly clause,” said Occupy Boise member Dean Gunderson.

If the Legislature passes the bill, Occupy Boise will seek a court injunction to prevent it from taking effect until the issue has been resolved in the courts, Gunderson said.

Occupy members did a meet-and-greet with Legislators Tuesday.

“I think it’s gone extremely well,” said Occupy member Rachael Raue, 55, of Nampa, who sat at a table of cookies with her dog Lily, a bichon frise. People chatted over the sound of a loud generator, which was brought to the site after power to the courthouse was cut Monday.

Some of Occupy’s biggest challenges come from within. One member, Art Stark, was arrested recently on vandalism charges of spray painting two government buildings.

In the past few weeks, police have been called to the encampment for two physical altercations, including one Occupy member pulling a knife on another, Luna said. Security officials were recently called to the camp by an Occupy member who accused another member of stealing items from his tent.

Gunderson said he was the person who was threatened with the knife. Occupy members had asked a man to leave because he’d been verbally abusive and used racist language. The man responded by taking a knife from the group’s kitchen and threatening Gunderson early one morning.

“He was arrested for disturbing the peace and assault,” said Gunderson, who was not injured.

A biracial transsexual named Camille Brandt said she suffered verbal abuse from camp members.

“I was asked by several people to lead a non-discrimination task force,” she said last week, adding that she felt the group “stifled her from doing that.”

Brandt said she was asked to leave the camp after Occupy members discovered she had been drinking alcohol; alcohol and drug use are forbidden. Brandt picketed the encampment last week.

Katy Moeller: 377-6413The Associated Press contributed.