A city committee moved forward a long-debated party ordinance Tuesday following several attempts to find a balance between landlords and student tenants.
The Public Safety Review Committee met Tuesday night to review the fourth revision of the Nuisance Party Ordinance. A motion to pass the ordinance by Ald. Paul Skidmore, District 9, was unopposed, and the legislation passed through the committee.
The Nuisance Party Ordinance has been brought before the Economic Development Committee, the Alcohol Licensing Review Committee and the Housing Committee.
Eventually, a small group of stakeholders, alders, landlord representatives, students and tenants sat down to discuss the language of the ordinance, Alcohol Policy Coordinator Mark Woulf said.
“We added in language that included a meeting that would occur after the first nuisance party was declared at an address with the tenants as well as landlords, police departments and the city attorney’s office,” Woulf said. “That was put in there so if all parties were coming and actively working with city officials there would be no fines levied for the first offense.”
In the original version there was a provision that allowed landlords to evade the nuisance party fine if they actively tried to evict tenants that violated the ordinance.
The fourth revision of the ordinance removed any language that made mention of eviction. The idea is that landlords are not encouraged to evict tenants, and also they do not feel pressured to move in that direction.
The legislation aims to distinguish between landlords who are actively engaged with their properties and with city officials, and landlords who are not responsive, Woulf said.
Skidmore said the ordinance lends itself some flexibility pertaining to the initial confrontation. He said if both parties are actively working with city officials and the landlords have taken the necessary steps — yet something else happens — the tenant could be more responsible in that instance.
He said it was determined that students should be involved in the first offense, and should sit down with the police and the landlord to talk about what happened and how to prevent it in the future.
“It’s progressive discipline; the first step is education. With the second step, if they do it again, they are probably knowingly doing it, and there will be consequences,” Skidmore said.
The ordinance deals with parties with egregious, life-threatening behavior, not the garden-variety parties, Skidmore said.
He said it is not about stopping drinking, but stopping life-threatening behavior that threatens those responsible, others or the property in a dangerous way.
According to Madison Police Captain Jay Lengfeld, the ordinance will help stop late-night, after-pub parties, commonly called “after-sets,” as well.
“The after-set parties may occur in a basement or empty building where 200 people may just take over,” Lengfeld said. “The ordinance will give us the tool to end the party that night, and that is what we’re currently missing. Right now unless you can find violations you have no authority to break up the party, and this ordinance will give us the avenue to do that.”
