2014-01-27 Regular Meeting of La Porte City Council minutes

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responded that is why the ordinance needs to be revisited. Chief Adcox informed that the ordinance specifically speaks to origin or destination for pick-ups and deliveries, places to have the trucks serviced, and does not even address truck stops. He added there is even some confusing definition of a truck, as well. Mayor Rigby asked if this ordinance is changed as requested, is the Police Department going to start issuing citations to trucks parked at Port Auto Truck Stop. Chief Adcox responded, "No. Would it be a violation of the ordinance? Technically, probably so. But using the spirit of the ordinance, what we believe the spirit of the law is, it would not be something we would take enforcement action against." Mayor Rigby then stated, "So, what you're saying is... is that this ordinance would give the police department authority to pick and choose whether to enforce the ordinance." Chief Adcox said, "No, sir, I'm not saying that at all." Chief Adcox stated that the way the ordinance is written, it is very vague; and there is no definition for what is specifically authorized to accommodate truck parking, and we are trying to tighten that up and provide more information for those who want to come into compliance. Mayor Rigby restated his original question, "Okay, once again. If a truck is parked in the parking lot at Port Auto Truck Stop, they are off the truck route just as if they were parked next to Burger King; is that correct?" Chief Adcox responded, "That's correct." Mayor Rigby said police can write a ticket to a truck parked at Port Auto the same as they can for a truck parked at Burger King. Chief Adcox stated that is correct, the way the ordinance is written today; and he went on to say the proposed ordinance change would not fix that. Mayor Rigby stated, "So, again, you're saying you wouldn't write tickets down at Port Auto Truck Stop, but you are going to write tickets at Burger King." Chief Adcox stated, "Yes, we've been asked to strictly enforcement that, yes, sir." Councilmember Leonard commented why make a change to the ordinance if it does not resolve the problem. Voting to change the ordinance to something we don't even know where we stand legally at this point is a moot point. We need to work through the situation, and find out where we stand to make sure we don't have an ordinance that is vague and doesn't fit the circumstances, and may even get us into a bigger mess. Doing a survey or getting an expert in here to find out what we can do, why don't we wait before we start making changes. It doesn't seem logical to him. He stated because of everything we may be at not writing any tickets, kind of going back the way it was 6 months ago, until we get to the bottom of this thing. Assistant City Attorney Clark Askins advised the City does not know for certain where things stand or are going to end up because of the pending complaint that has been filed with the Federal Highway Administration and the pending investigation. Mr. Askins advised during this waiting period, he is not too concerned with continued enforcement if desired by Council due to the City not being in violation of any criminal law. We won't know exactly where we stand until the investigation is done. Mayor Rigby questioned Chief Adcox regarding the 136 violations off the truck route. Chief Adcox clarified there were 136 calls generated by an officer that related to truck route violations. Mayor Rigby asked about the five citizen complaints, and whether they stemmed from trucks being parked in a parking lot or traveling in a residential area. Chief Adcox responded there were a total of 9 and PD went through manually and eliminated any involved in `other than truck routes.' He stated he can't promise there weren't any 'truck in a neighborhood call,' but it was a way to provide quick numbers. Councilmember Zemanek questioned out of 137 (sic) violations, how many were issued citations. Police Chief Ken Adcox responded 20. He was not aware of the reason for only 20; he would need to get with each individual officer. Councilman Zemanek stated we issued only 14 percent. Page 6 of 10 January 27, 2014, Council Meeting Minutes