Public safety officials address proposed ordinance changes

Duluth public safety officials shared more about the recent proposal to amend city ordinances in a meeting Tuesday afternoon, July 16.

This comes a day after a packed Duluth city council meeting where dozens of citizens signed up to address officials in public.

The proposal, which was announced on July 9 by Duluth Mayor Roger Reinert, looks to amend 10 city ordinances. For a majority of these, it involves making certain offenses such as graffiti, public property destruction and others into misdemeanors. Currently, many of these offenses are only punishable by administrative citations, or fines. However, Duluth officials say these don’t always work.

“These lack real means for enforcement, real incentives for individuals to consider resource options, other choices, and they often only serve as a financial burden to individuals who already have little or no resources. So, it’s no wonder they’re not very effective.” Mayor Reinert said during the proposal’s introduction.

“Oftentimes we realize that’s not a realistic thing that we can give a person a fine. We’ve actually had people tear them up and throw on the, you know, just throw them down in front of us because they have no intention of paying them.” said DFD Chief Shawn Krizaj in Tuesday’s meeting.

Duluth Police Chief Mike Ceynowa says that, while misdemeanors can result in jail time or fines, he also says it’ll provide an opportunity for alternative sentences in some cases.

“Maybe that’s a comprehensive assessment around behavioral health and substance use. Maybe that is doing some community service work. Maybe that is cleaning up the graffiti that you placed on a business. It just creates much more opportunities for us to connect people either with services or ways to get back into the good with the community and allows for that charge to be expunged, to be erased from their record as if it never occurred.” Chief Ceynowa said, adding that he hoped this would be a way to connect offenders to resources that they may not have otherwise done voluntarily.

The proposed amendments can be found on the city’s website. The city council will read the proposed amendments again before they come to a vote. If passed, they’ll take effect 30 days after council approval.