CC Minutes - 01/14/02 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Councilor Kelly, seconded by Councilor Pap6, moved that the bill, with the unanimous consent of the council, be read by council bill number only, and that enactment be considered at this time. Councilor Rayor, seconded by Councilor Kelly, moved to remove Section 4.827 from the proposed ordinance. Speaking to the amendment, Councilor Rayor believed incorporating the ordinance into the City Code could be controversial, and thought the issue better addressed at the State level. Councilor Kelly agreed with Councilor Rayor, saying that if the section was not included in the local code, the violation could not be managed through the Municipal Court. He thought there were philosophical reasons for including or not including such violations in the code. Councilor Kelly added that violations such as the one identified in the section had to him an air of scoring political points. He said that the same was true for the violation related to research and animal interference; there were laws at both the State and federal level that addressed the same type of offenses. Councilor Nathanson asked staff if it was aware of the opinion of the Municipal Court judge and its opinion about the sections being added. She asked what it said to the local community, the Police Department, and the State if the City chose not to include the section. Ms. Nelson responded that the reasons for the existence of Municipal Court needed to be considered. The court reflected the values of the community. For example, traffic enforcement sanctions were high on the list of the court's priorities because of its importance to the community. Regarding the attitude of the police, Ms. Nelson said that the court has an agreement with the Police Department that cases such as protest cases that generate media interest will be cited in Circuit Court, which was better able to handle them. She added that the situations were often reviewed on a case-by- case basis. There were also benefits to the organization in maximizing the number of cases that could be handled by Municipal Court because of fine and fee revenue, but more significantly because of savings in the Police overtime budget, because the Municipal Court was better able to coordinate with officers' work schedules. In addition, the court leases jail space from the County, which gave the court the ability to ensure that prisoners served their sentences and were not matrixed out for lack of space. Councilor Nathanson did not find the issue of fee revenue in terms of the violation in question very compelling. She believed that the community was very concerned about the issue of personal safety, but the court, for example, did not prosecute murders, which went to another level. She said that a decision not to include the violation in the code was not a reflection of its lack of importance, but rather a reflection of the council's desire to find an appropriate venue for the violation. MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 14, 2002 Page 8 Regular Meeting