After carefully considering the opinions of University students, the Eugene City Council voted unanimously Monday night to pass the Special Response Fee Ordinance, which will fine Eugene residents for repeated police response to parties at their home.
Proposed by the Eugene Police Department, the ordinance has been under review of the council for more than a year before its final revision was approved.
A unanimous vote was also cast for the Emergency Clause to the ordinance, which puts it into effect immediately.
ASUO community outreach director Christa Shively and ASUO President Jay Breslow both spoke to the council during the public forum before the vote was cast.
“We do not feel [this ordinance] is the best form of action and we would not support it,” Shively said. “However we know the ordinance will pass, so we just ask that the work we have done with the council will be taken into consideration.”
Discussion of the ordinance began after police found themselves responding more frequently to problematic parties. These parties often involve excessive noise, obstruction of public streets or sidewalks, minors in possessions of alcohol, serving alcohol to minors, littering, fights, and disorderly conduct.
Modeling the ordinance after similar ones in Berkeley, Calif. and Corvallis, Ore. Lieutenant Carolyn McDermed and Lieutenant Rick Gilliam are two officers who set out to provide Eugene with a way to respond to fees incurred by responding to local parties.
“We’ve been having to pull officers from other parts of the city and hire additional officers just to respond to out of control parties,” McDermed said.
Gilliam said the police department did not agree with all of the amendments presented by the ASUO, but did want to work with the student government on improving the ordinance.
Amendments that were added to the ordinance included changing the number of people needed to be present at a party from 10 to 25, letting the persons giving the party call for police assistance without first being given a warning, and refunding the fee if the recipient of the fine can prove all persons arrested or cited at the gathering were acquitted in court.
The current ordinance states that if the police must respond to the same residence twice within 90 days, a fee will be given. The failed amendment would have reduced the number of days from 90 to 60.
The amendment originally passed, but councilor Gary Rayor changed his vote to no after first voting yes.
Shively said she was satisfied with the overall outcome, despite the one failed amendment.
“We worked on this for almost a year and put a lot of time into it,” Shively said.
Both police officers were pleased overall with the results.
“We felt the end result was very fair,” McDermed said.
City Council members all congratulated the ASUO as a whole for the way in which they worked with the police and City Council.
ASUO State Affairs Coordinator Brian Tanner said he was disappointed that Bonny Bettman, the councilor who represents the University area, did not support any of the amendments proposed by the ASUO.