City Withdraws Penalty Ordinance

Instead of voting on its “penalty power” ordinance 19-18, at its May 8, 2019, meeting, the city council withdrew it.  Apparently, the council could not get the unanimous approval of all seven ward members, a requirement for charter amendments.  Since no vote was taken, there is no record to identify who among the individual ward representatives withheld approval.

On April 27, 2019, when the vote was originally scheduled to go forward, ward 7 council member Jane Prince stated that she needed more time to study this ordinance. Ms. Prince requested that the vote be delayed by two weeks.

Although this charter amendment is no longer on the council’s agenda, nothing prevents the city from revisiting the issue in the future.

To read how the Pioneer Press reported this event, see this download, or visit its online version.