Duluth city administration proposed ten ordinance changes back on July 9th that officials say will solve frequently reported non-violent offenses. At Thursday night’s Duluth city council agenda session, councilors were doing much more fact-finding.

Duluth city councilors were asking a myriad of questions about the proposed new laws governing behaviours like burning, property damage, graffiti, solid waste compliance and camping on public property, which could be complicated from one case to another.

Councilors asking police and fire officials for assurances on things like how officers and fire officials handle personal property of folks living in tents or encampments.

Ryan Morris, Deputy Chief of the Duluth police department responded to councilors questions by saying, “If we had documents or a drivers license or something that we can attribute to a person, we not going to dump it in a dumpster.”

Duluth fire chief Shawn Krizaj also assuring councilors that care and respect are given to personal property.

“Normally we are just dealing with debris, left over garbage stuff like that we pick up. So we would certainly never intentionally get rid of important documentation or anything like that. And again if we’re dealing with more of a blight issue that falls into this abatement catagory, we don’t just go in with a tow truck and get rid of stuff.”

Community members have been voicing concerns about the ordinance changes through emails and attending city council meetings since the initial proposal.

No action was taken at Thursday night’s agenda session, but likely will be at Monday’s full council meeting. That meeting on July 29th has also been moved up to begin at 5:15 in council chambers instead of the usual start time of 7:00.