The City and Borough of Juneau Assembly postponed talks of restricting fireworks usage at a committee meeting Monday, instead requesting the Juneau Police Department mitigate the issue using an existing ordinance.<\/p>\n
The Assembly won\u2019t take the issue up again until April 2017, when JPD has had time to quell unreasonable fireworks usage under Juneau\u2019s disturbing the peace code. Assembly Member Jerry Nankervis\u2019 motion to postpone acting on the city\u2019s draft fireworks ordinance passed 5-3.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we are getting far ahead of ourselves here with the draft ordinance,\u201d Nankervis said. \u201c… We don\u2019t have information on whether or not the current noise ordinance will work.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Nankervis, issuing citations under a fireworks ordinance won\u2019t be any easier than doing so under the disturbing the peace ordinance, which both require burdens of proof much lower than those for criminal offenses. In other words, JPD could be issuing more fireworks citations and an additional ordinance will only duplicate the city\u2019s existing code.<\/p>\n
Nankervis said passing a fireworks ordinance \u201cwon\u2019t make a hill of beans of difference.\u201d The burden of proof for a citation is not beyond a reasonable doubt, he explained Monday, saying it\u2019s lower than that.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are basically duplicating what we already have going on. If there hasn\u2019t been any enforcement action under the current noise ordinance, I don\u2019t know why we would have any more citations with the new ordinance,\u201d Nankervis said. \u201cThe burden of proof is not any lower, it is the same (under both ordinances). \u2026 We could be doing a better job of enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Assembly asked Chief of Police Bryce Johnson, who spoke at the meeting, to renew efforts to keep fireworks in check before complaints are made.<\/p>\n
Though the Assembly cannot dictate police department policy without an ordinance, they were satisfied that a fresh approach from JPD \u2014 whatever that looks like \u2014 will help. The Assembly asked JPD to report back in April as to whether numbers of complaints have dropped.<\/p>\n
Under the existing disturbing the peace ordinance, JPD treats fireworks grievances as noise complaints. Of the 122 fireworks complaints JPD received last year, police located and spoke with people in 16 cases. In other cases, issues of public safety took precedence over noise complaints, or JPD wasn\u2019t able to locate fireworks users.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are the 16 calls where we think we can do better enforcement,\u201d Johnson said. He went on to explain that when JPD responds to a noise complaint, they only issue a citation if those creating the ruckus do not stop, or in police language, \u201cvoluntarily comply.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson said JPD could change start issuing citations to anyone using fireworks, even if they agree to stop when asked, but he said that\u2019s \u201cnot the way we usually handle these things and that would be a fundamental change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Much of the discussion at the Committee of the Whole meeting hinged on how the city defines \u201cunreasonable noise.\u201d Several Assembly members expressed dismay that the definition is too vague: those wishing to use fireworks don\u2019t know when they can or cannot, and those disturbed by explosions don\u2019t know when it\u2019s appropriate to make a complaint.<\/p>\n
One way for JPD to help cut back on complaints in the first place, Assembly Member Maria Gladziszewski suggested, is to communicate clearer expectations with the community as to when and where to expect colorful explosions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal for me is to have a predictable way to get noise out of neighborhoods. This still allows fireworks in neighborhoods, and at more times than the Fourth of July or New Year\u2019s Eve. We\u2019re still a little bit fuzzy on whether other times might still be considered reasonable,\u201d Gladziszewski said, speaking against the motion.<\/p>\n
The city has drafted two possible fireworks ordinances \u2014 one which restricts fireworks use to several days before and after the Fourth of July and New Year\u2019s Eve, and another which additionally bans the use of aerial fireworks and allows for a permit process for any airborne celebrations.<\/p>\n
Assembly members Nankervis, Beth Weldon, Norton Gregory, Mary Becker and Debbie White voted to postpone those ordinances. Gladziszewski, Loren Jones and Jesse Kiehl voted against.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Housing Action Plan<\/strong><\/p>\n The Committee of the Whole also passed a motion to vote on incorporating the Housing Action Plan into the Assembly\u2019s wider Comprehensive Plan. The Housing Action Plan \u2014 a 68-page directive aimed at \u201cunsticking\u201d Juneau\u2019s housing market \u2014 will now be eligible for an official vote.<\/p>\n The motion to forward an ordinance to the Assembly, which could adopt the plan, passed 5-3.<\/p>\n The Housing Commission recommended that the Assembly adopt the plan formally into its Comprehensive Plan, which the Assembly must evaluate all proposals against.<\/p>\n Assembly member Mary Becker, who voted against the motion, was \u201cvery nervous\u201d that the Housing Action Plan, if adopted into the Comprehensive Plan, would hamstring the Assembly\u2019s ability to pick and choose the most effective parts of the plan for alleviating Juneau\u2019s housing crisis.<\/p>\n Assembly member Loren Jones voted against the motion for a different reason, saying the Housing Action Plan was too long.<\/p>\n Some who voted to bring the ordinance to a vote argued that the Committee of the Whole would still have say over which parts of the plan to fund, and wouldn\u2019t be committed to everything in the Comprehensive Plan as it is \u201caspirational\u201d in nature.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Comprehensive Plan is not the law, it commits us to no funding,\u201d Gladziszewski said. \u201cWe are the committee that decides how money is spent. \u2026 One thing we can all agree on, that we need more housing in this town.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Contact reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 or kevin.gullufsen@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The City and Borough of Juneau Assembly postponed talks of restricting fireworks usage at a committee meeting Monday, instead requesting the Juneau Police Department mitigate the issue using an existing ordinance. The Assembly won\u2019t take the issue up again until April 2017, when JPD has had time to quell unreasonable fireworks usage under Juneau\u2019s disturbing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":27752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-27751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27751"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=27751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}