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Councilmember McGlone stated the law says what can be deemed as a public nuisance on <br />property — that could be a potential for public danger. He mentioned woodpiles, inoperable <br />vehicles and stated we could go for the obvious. <br />Chief Way stated this is probably that one percent chance we are talking about. This has been <br />working quite well. Something went wrong here but he felt a boatload of time has been spent on <br />this. He did not know if this is a procedural thing or an ordinance thing. <br />Mayor Ramsey stated he does not want our officers acting on complaints because they have the <br />authority. <br />Chief Way sated he knows this ordinance has been used as a weapon — one neighbor uses it <br />against another neighbor. We will never get a perfect ordinance. We can talk about this but he <br />did not know what we want to change. <br />Mayor Ramsey stated he is not interested in changing this. There are very few problems with <br />this and noted that property rights are important to him too. The Chief makes a good point — it's <br />an efficiency thing too. If you ignore these things, you are turning your backs on a violation. He <br />felt the way it's written makes our officers more efficient. <br />Councilmember Tossey stated our officers are given a tremendous amount of discretion. In this <br />case, discretion was not used properly. As long as people will not harm their neighbor, I do not <br />know enough about this particular case. He added maybe we could tweak our ordinance. <br />Chief Way stated we will have to use a search warrant again soon. We have already been told <br />we will not be granted permission to get onto the property. <br />Mayor Ramsey stated he gets that when we have already been out there. He understands taking <br />that extra step but not on the initial contact because they may never get a chance to get it <br />addressed. Maybe the policy needs to be that we need to have that discussion as a City Council <br />to authorize a warrant. He added that he heard its $1,500 to get a warrant. <br />Councilmember Tossey stated he would oppose having to run any more administrative through <br />Council. <br />Mayor Ramsey stated that then he wants to hold our Police Officers to a higher standard. <br />Attorney Goodrich stated the fact that we got a warrant, no charge has been made and that person <br />has full opportunity to clean up before any action is taken. <br />Councilmember Elvig stated he has sat through a lot of these discussions about getting this <br />violation cleaned up. This ordinance is on the books — this is part of our job — he stated he would <br />vote to keep it as is. <br />Mayor Ramsey stated when we go to a Judge, do we let them know we are complaint based. <br />City Council Work Session / May 29, 2012 <br />Page 4 of 12 <br />