The Alcohol License Review Committee referred legislation concerning penalties associated with student-hosted house parties to next month’s meeting in order to give the Madison Police Department time to prepare a plan for it during a meeting Wednesday.
The new bill aims to restructure city ordinances in order to deter students from having elaborate parties exemplified by student nightlife, including the Mifflin Street Block Party.
The bill outlines nine qualifying criteria for parties to be considered a nuisance and states a $500 fine can be issued when two or more of these criteria are violated.
City Alcohol Policy Coordinator Mark Woulf urged the committee to take action. Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, however, said he saw no urgency to act at the moment.
Verveer said the new definition of a nuisance party is currently unknown because there have been multiple drafts created for the definition. All committees need to know the exact definition before any action is taken, he added.
District 5 resident Thomas Landgraf suggested moving the motion to next month’s meeting. Landgraf said he would like to see if MPD would make any other changes during that time. The committee unanimously agreed.
Common Council member Shiva Bidar-Sielaff, District 5, said she is unsure how this new definition is any different from the previous one.
“I would like to hear MPD articulate whether [the ordinance] will be a positive or negative tool,” she said.
MPD Captain Mary Schauf said there currently is not a standard of enforcement for nuisance parties, and it is within the officer’s discretion to act. The broader operations group will take a closer look at the ordinance.
ALRC member Rachel Lepak said the ordinance was discussed two weeks ago in their meeting, although no consensus had been reached.
Lepak added it has not been brought back into discussion.
There were questions about fining, how the officers would react to this and if it would solve the problems or just create more, she said.
District 10 resident Thomas Farley said he didn’t think this topic met the standards ALRC operates under and should be passed along to another committee.
“Move it along and get it to the right place,” he said.
Bidar-Sielaff and Verveer were happy to see that the new legislative process requires the alder be notified in order to follow the proceedings.
Woulf said he would like to see the Public Safety Review Committee send the ordinance to the council with or without approval from other committees. He added he opposes the motion without approval from the other committees.
Landgraf said he would also like to see Woulf send this definition to all the committees.
“My hope is that it will move forward in the next month,” Woulf said.
Woulf said he believed the new definition cannot be improved any more than it already has. The Public Safety Review Committee will not see the ordinance until February due to the referral, Woulf said.
ALRC will revisit the ordinance during their next meeting on Dec. 21.
In the original article, published Dec. 1st, Mary Schauf was identified as the Chief of the University of Wisconsin Police. She is actually the Executive Captain of Support Services for the Madison Police Department. The article has been changed to reflect the correction. We regret for the error.
