Committee Meetings June 8, 2009

Alderman Row and Oberkfell were not in attendance at this meeting.

Parks, Playgrounds, & Recreation

• Update on walking trail issues

It seems work will begin again on the walking trail between Loucust and Cherry streets once a few more details are ironed out with the concrete plant and Turner Hall. The Turners have agreed to grant a 20’ wide ingress/egress easement to Metter Park from the walking trail.


• Park Rules Discussion

Discussion started on how the city may want to pass an ordinance to allow fines to be assessed to people who break the posted rules in the city parks. Questions then fired up regarding the amount the fines would be. Tom Adams stated the amounts by state standards are $75-$750. The mayor added that the city has many ordinances where the fine is as little as $25.

When an alderman asked what or who determines the fine the questioning went over to Chief Edwards. He explained that 99% of the time when they are called for an ordinance violation they simply talk to the individual about what they are doing and give them a warning. The second time they are called they issue a fine, the third time they have to talk to the individual regarding the same issue they double the fine, it would triple for the fourth instance and so on.

Alderman Stumpf then asked if the city comes out ahead when issuing fines. In short the answer was no, after lawyer fees, court costs, and police time spent there is not really a monetary gain for the city in this situation unless the fines grow large enough.

No action was taken on an ordinance to assess fines to those who break the rules at the city parks, it was decided that Alderman Niemetz will look into the situation a little further.

One last tidbit of info from the meeting that may prove useful to those who use the parks is that the only area on any city property that dogs are not allowed is the walking trail at Bolm-Schuhkraft park by Parkview elementary. This is not so much an issue of people not cleaning up after their pets (which from what I have seen does not always get taken care of) but rather that dogs on leashes while people are rollerblading, jogging, and biking is not an ideal situation as explained by the council.

Personnel

• Executive Session
- EEOC Complaint
- Update on collective bargaining and employees salaries

End of Meeting

I have no issue on asking Chief Edwards if the fines provide revenue or not. Although I think it is important however for the council to continue to remember that not all services provided by the city can support themselves. We pay taxes to the city to provide us as citizens certain services. I appreciate the fact that the city and its police force can fine people who are not abiding by the law or city ordinances.

The mere fact they can fine people keeps most people from doing wrong in the first place and thus keeps a certain amount of order to things. Its costs money to enforce laws, it's not a for-profit endeavor. I hope our police department can never support their own operating costs by assessing fines, writing tickets or the seizure of drug related property. If they can then our city has become something none of us would want to be a part of.