Springfield aldermen Tuesday voted 6-3 in favor of a proposal that allows police to tow a vehicle if a driver gets caught playing music too loud twice in 24 months.
The previous threshold was three times.
The change takes effect immediately.
Fines will stay the same — $250 for the first offense, $500 for the second, $750 for the third and subsequent offenses.
The city council approved the new rules, which were suggested by Ward 4 Ald. Frank Lesko and Ward 8 Ald. Kris Theilen, after again rejecting a proposal by a vote of 4-5 that would have allowed police to tow vehicles on the first offense.
The debate prompted emotional testimony from both sides of the issue. Opponents said towing on the first offense is too severe, unfairly targets rap music and could lead to racial profiling. Supporters said music is often played so loud that it affects other residents’ quality of life.
After the vote, Mayor Tim Davlin called the approved changes a “good compromise.”
“Perhaps our results will be somewhat similar to what happened in Peoria, we’ll have some quieter neighborhoods,” he said.
Ward 6 Ald. Mark Mahoney, who sponsored the one-stop-and-you’re-towed ordinance, was disappointed in the outcome.
“It’s an improvement, but obviously it doesn’t have the deterrence as the one-stop… It looks like more communities are moving to the one-stop impoundment because it works, and we are at the second stop,” Mahoney said. “Perhaps we’re headed in the right direction; it just takes us longer.”
Mahoney’s proposal was modeled after Peoria’s rules, which allow police to tow a vehicle on the first offense. Fines, however, would have been lowered.
Peoria’s police chief, Steve Settingsgaard, told Springfield aldermen Tuesday night that just the possibility of being towed immediately made Peoria a quieter city.
Theilen said he believes Springfield’s current fines are making a difference. He pointed to statistics that showed only seven people had two violations in the last year, and just two people had three violations.
Settingsgaard said he judges the success of a city’s rules by how quiet it is.
“It’s not how much money we raised, it’s not how many tickets we issued, not how many cars got impounded,” he said. “It’s when people are sitting on their porch at night, do they have peace and quiet?”
Aldermen rejected Mahoney’s proposal by the same 4-5 vote in December, but Ward 9 Ald. Steve Dove was absent. The issue was reintroduced in April because Mahoney believed he had Dove’s support. But Dove recently said he wouldn’t support Mahoney’s proposal, leaving it without enough votes to pass.
Dove voted “no” on Mahoney’s ordinance Tuesday, and Ward 3 Ald. Frank Kunz, who originally voted against it, was absent.
A group of opponents stood outside city hall before the meeting chanting: “Save our music. Save our cars.”
Springfield resident Ryne Goodrich has been a vocal opponent, saying the proposal unfairly targets rap music and ignores a lot of other noisy activities.
“We still have buses. We still have motorcycles. We still have big trucks, loud mufflers, lawn mowers, leaf blowers, roofers, construction, dogs, neighbors, ice cream men,” he told the council. “We’ve got all this stuff. So you guys are really only addressing one issue.”
At the end of the meeting, Ward 7 Ald. Debbie Cimarossa referred to the discussion as “really kind of sad.”
“This isn’t about the type of music. I really take offense that people are not understanding the issue,” she said. “This is a neighborhood issue. It boils down to a lack of respect. When people go through neighborhoods and blare their music. … I just hope they use their energy to talk about respect.”
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Local law enforcement and AAA MountainWest are working together to make sure residents who imbibe a bit too much this holiday season get home safely.
