Mayor Olson invited Police Chief Rod Hurst and Fire Chief Ryan Lind to the City Council Work Meeting on January 18th to discuss the city ordinances and their enforcement.
The Mayor prefaced the discussion by saying that he’s looking for the place where justice and compassion meet.
Quick Civics discussion—
Parents know, governing people is hard. Even a bouncing baby has the beautiful, godlike ability to imagine what they want and work to get it.
A baby may see a bright and colorful ball and begin to chase it.
Unfortunately, when people live near each other, for example—in a city, conflicting desires and views of the world are inevitable.
Like two children fighting over the same ball.
To manage these conflicts, we agree to live by certain rules or guidelines, known as laws.
A rule such as: taking turns with the ball.
Hopefully, we work to establish laws that uphold general peace and tranquility, but are fair; seeing the individual circumstances of the people and understanding why they do what they do.
This is the problem that our new Mayor and City Council face.
At the meeting, the Mayor gave an example of the two sides of the law. He said, “it’s easy to say, we’ll come down hard … until you kick a family out [of their shed], there’s nowhere to go and it’s 0 degrees outside.”
City Manager Benjamin Reeves explained to the Council that they have the power to crack down and create a near police state, or the power to revoke laws and their enforcement, or the power to do anywhere in between.
The chiefs jointly asked the Council what their priorities are and where the Council would like them to focus their resources.
There are a lot of laws, but the City only employs 14 police officers. There are thousands of residents and miles of land across the city. The police and other City officials couldn’t have a big enough budget to ensure that every law is always followed.
So, what is the Council to do?
Chief Lind made the point: “You can follow the letter of the law, or the spirit of the law.”
The idea of hiring an administrative law judge (ALJ) was discussed at length. This ALJ would hear and work through cases, easing the load of the criminal justice court.
The Council and Mayor mulled over the idea, suggesting that the ALJ would have more options for dealing with issues and be able to assist in problem solving, rather than simply punishing citizens when they’re cited.
This is an invitation by the editor to the public: You voted in the Mayor and the Council. They work for you. They need to know what your priorities are and how you would like the city governed. Reach out to them.