STATE COLLEGE: ACLU letter postpones measure

Council puts off party action

Ordinance would fine hosts in case of illegal activities

Mike Joseph

- mjoseph@centredaily.com

STATE COLLEGE — Surprised by a late-arriving letter from the American Civil Liberties Union, Borough Council on Monday put off until February action on a nuisance gathering ordinance designed to reduce the negative impacts of rowdy parties on neighborhoods.

Council in a split vote also tabled a resolution to name the borough municipal building for the late Mayor Bill Welch. Differences arose over whether Welch would have wanted the building named after him and whether that question was an issue.

“It seems like this should have been given a little more deliberation,” Councilman James Rosenberger said.

The nuisance gathering ordinance postponement came after the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania renewed its threat to take the borough to court over the ordinance.

The ordinance would subject the hosts of parties of 10 or more people to a fine of up to $600 if the party results in illegal activities such as underage drinking, public drunkenness, lewdness, public urination and criminal mischief.

The ACLU letter — written by ACLU staff attorney Valerie Burch and sent to Borough Council President Elizabeth Goreham and solicitor Terry Williams — raised due process and First Amendment rights of association and expression as issues.

The letter invoked the example of a resident and art collector who invites people into her home during the annual Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts to view paintings.

“As soon as 10 people gather,” Burch wrote, “the art collector becomes criminally responsible for any ‘illegal conduct or condition which injures, or endangers the safety, health or welfare of the neighborhood’ so long as the illegal activity takes place within 100 feet of her home.”

The proposed ordinance “is likely to draw a constitutional challenge, and we thus urge State College to abandon it altogether,” Burch said.

“Punishing people for crimes they neither committed themselves nor had any intent to facilitate violates fundamental due process rights.”

Williams and Borough Manager Tom Fountaine recommended the postponement until February not because of the issues raised by the ACLU, they said, but because the letter arrived so late in the day. Williams said he did not see the letter until after 5 p.m.

Council member statements suggested a split vote would have been likely. Peter Morris said he had “looked forward to voting against it.”

Don Hahn said he would not have supported it. Rosenberger said he had “reservations,” and Elizabeth Goreham said she preferred a system of “registering” parties as a way to control them.

But Ron Filippelli said the threat of litigation “should not be a factor” in the council’s ultimate decision, and Theresa Lafer said parties are going “well beyond nuisances” to “positively dangerous behavior.”

Burch said in an interview Monday that to her knowledge the ACLU of Pennsylvania has not yet sued over any similar ordinances in recent years. A similar ordinance on the books in Bloomsburg — home of the 10,000-student Bloomsburg University — “is unconstitutional, but we have never received a complaint about it,” Burch said. The Bloomsburg ordinance allows for fines up to $1,000 and jail time up to 90 days.

Bloomsburg Councilman Paul Kinney said Monday the ordinance has been effective.

“The reason we did that is because it did get out of hand a few years back,” he said. “Personally, I would like to see all the parties stopped.”

In Ohio, the city of Bowling Green — home to the 21,000-student Bowling Green State University — approved a “nuisance party ordinance” in late 2004.

It took effect the following year and since then has been used to issue about 60 citations, similar to Pennsylvania’s summary citations, each year. A related “nuisance property ordinance” came later.

“These ordinances have had an effect,” Matthew Reger, Bowling Green’s city prosecutor, said recently. “We don’t have overly large parties, we don’t have out-of-control parties.”

Mike Joseph can be reached at 235-3910.

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@

Jobs Cars Homes Apartments Place an ad