The Associated Students of Madison’s Coordinating Council approved a motion Wednesday to oppose a nuisance party ordinance currently making its way through the city’s legislative process.
Over the last several months, some student leaders have said they fear the proposal is too ambiguous and lacks appropriate oversight from landlords.
Much of the Council was opposed the ordinance and criticized its ambiguity. Some characterized the ordinance as an attempt to promote greater involvement by absent landlords with their tenants.
Freshman Student Council Representative Maria Giannopoulos said the ordinance would “cause anonymity between students and landlords.”
This would be accomplished through a fine given to landlords whose tenants’ parties are deemed a nuisance party, according to Giannopoulos.
She also said a tenant’s party would have to participate in a minimum of two qualifications from a list of nine items if it were to be considered a nuisance. The list would include items such as the playing of loud music to a variety of alcohol-related practices.
“My concern with this is that landlords won’t let students know what they can and can’t be doing,” Student Council Chair Allie Gardner said. “I’m more concerned that there’s not going to be oversight of the landlords.”
The Council endorsed a letter from ASM’s Legislative Affairs Committee detailing reasons for opposing the ordinance and asked that members vote against the proposal. The letter included concerns for the rights of student tenants that have recently been limited by recent legislation.
The letter also mentioned landlords may be able to find loopholes through which to pass the fines on to tenants, making it harder for students to pay off the fines given by the police for their actions as well as the charge from their landlord.
“I’m worried that the intent may have been good by the city but the effects won’t be positive,” council member Niko Magallon said.
ASM Chief of Staff David Gardner also presented the Strategic Planning Committee’s template of making ASM more efficient and effective. He said the plan would have a semester-long timeline and incorporate committees’ goals to reflect ASM’s efforts as a whole.
“Obviously each committee has its own goals and we want to bring these goals forward so that we can look at the end of the semester and say ‘look at all these students we reached,'” David Gardner said.
The committee generated a template of the efficiency plan over winter break, but would not release details of the template in the council meeting. David Gardner said they will be releasing a statement on this template sometime next week.
In addition to recruiting volunteers to register students and work tables, members reported the Legislative Affairs Committee is in the process of planning and finalizing details of its kickoff for student voter registration, set for Feb. 9.
The Coordinating Council will discuss further voter education and collaborative action to be taken up by the Legislative Affairs Committee in its upcoming meetings.
