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City of Duluth announces proposed package of public safety ordinances at news conference Tuesday

[DULUTH, MN] City of Duluth officials announced a proposed package of public safety ordinance changes that allow the City additional options for solving frequently reported nonviolent offenses. Mayor Roger Reinert opened today’s news conference by thanking Duluth Police Chief Mike Ceynowa, Duluth Fire Chief Shawn Krizaj, and Duluth City Attorney Jessica Fralich for their long-range work on the improvement and modernization of City Code. “Early in my conversations with Chief Ceynowa and Chief Krizaj, I asked them to highlight the things that they would change if they could—things that would better support our police and firefighters, better influence problem behaviors, better connect individuals with needed resources, and better the quality of life in our neighborhoods and community,” said Mayor Reinert. That conversation was the motivation for the package of ten ordinance changes that will be on the City Council agenda for a first reading on July 15.

The ten ordinances will amend multiple sections of City code and establish misdemeanor-level offenses for acts that represent the complaints most often received from residents and are most observed by public safety teams. The ordinances cover behaviors like burning, property damage, graffiti, solid waste compliance, and camping on public property. “These new ordinance proposals will allow us to address problem behaviors that impact everyone’s ability to feel safe and secure in their community,” said Chief Ceynowa. “Changing offenses from fines, which may be a financial burden to some, to misdemeanors allows for the option of diversion and connection to services. As a police department, we will educate and encourage prior to enforcement. This approach creates compassion with accountability.”

“This ordinance work has actually been underway for quite some time—in some cases, years—but Chief Ceynowa and I are grateful to City Attorney Fralich, Chief Administrator Montgomery, and Mayor Reinert for their support of our staff who have been in the field working on these frequent community complaints without the proper infrastructure in place to enforce public safety,” said Chief Krizaj. “We’ve been in meetings all along with various community partners to make sure that this ordinance package reflects our community values and holds our enforcement strategies to those standards while we do the work to keep our community safe.”

The ten ordinances will be first read by City Council at their Monday, July 15 meeting. The package will be read by the council a requisite second time at its meeting on July 29 and a vote will follow. The ordinances would go into effect 30 days following adoption.

The complete agenda, meeting dates and times, and more can be found at https://duluthmn.gov/city-council/.

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