Published: March 27, 2008 04:05 pm            

More data needed for curfew ordinance

This curfew for the kiddos on the streets of Gun Barrel City may take a while to hammer out, not to mention lots of consultation with attorneys.

Council members learned Tuesday night at Brawner Hall that they still have lots of homework to do before coming up with a workable curfew.

Councilman Todd Hogan asked what data the city has that can be used to put the ordinance into play.

“We have to justify this,” he said. “We can’t just enact a curfew because we think it’s a good idea.”

Want the kids off the streets at midnight, or earlier, you’ve got to show the state that there’s a problem, and you’ve got to be able to verify it with some hard numbers.

City Manager Gerry Boren told the council he would begin looking into police data to determine how much of a problem children, and teenagers are at specific times and ages. He hopes to have that information compiled and ready by the next council meeting in two weeks.

Council woman Patsy Black urged other members of the panel to come up with curfew ordinance because it’s needed, but in doing so, she warned that it has to be kept as simple as possible.

One of the problems a complex curfew does is take police officers off the streets at critical hours to do paper work.

Council members were shown examples of how curfew laws are enforced in communities like Corpus Christi, Bridge City and Paris. All were detailed, a few seemed all that simple to enforce.

However, one of the ways officers can stop curfew violators without spending the rest of the evening with the accused, is to issue a citation and require that the violator come in the following day for “counseling.”

Councilman Marty Goss suggested setting up a curfew committee to study the matter.

Black thought that was a good idea, but warned again, to “keep it enforceable.”

Boren said first he wanted to get with three sergeants from the police department, a j judge and a court clerk so they could begin “tasking” before the next meeting.

Councilman Todd Hogan asked what data the city has. “We have to justify this,” he said.

One of the questions that have to be worked out include what happens when an 18-year-old is out with a 17-year-old, especially if the older one is legal to be out and the younger one isn’t.

Another item that came up during the Citizens’ Comments portion of the meeting.

Pam Patterson used her three-minutes to blast the Gun Barrel City Police Department, which she says used excessive force after she left the ETMC Gun Barrel Clinic in anger after officials made the decision to treat another emergency-room patient before her.

She said she had brought in by EMS because of severe dental problems and that the other person had walked in for treatment following a tractor accident.

Mayor Paul Eaton ended the woman’s remarks short because of what he called “attacks” on certain officers. “Ma’am, that’s it. Time’s up.”

Patterson stopped talking when the mayor told her that he time was up, but she confronted officers at the end of the meeting.

After heated exchanges between Police Chief Mabelle Lane and City Manager Gerry Boren, the woman was directed to take her complaints to Texas Ranger Shane McDonald for an inedpendent investigation, which she indicated she would be doing.

In other action taken at Tuesday night’s regularly-scheduled meeting at Brawner Hall, the Gun Barrel City Council voted;

• unanimously to schedule two Town Hall meetings to discuss the proposed Home Rule Charter amendments, one for Saturday, April 19 and one for Saturday, April 26. The 19th meeting will be held at 3 p.m.; the April 26th meeting at 10 a.m.;

• unanimously to table a motion concerning a two percent franchise fee on water and sewer within the City until council can consult with its attorneys on legalities involved in such a decision.

        

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