Benton Harbor bringing mobile nuisance party ordinance back to the drawing board

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. -- Benton Harbor city leaders are pulling an ordinance back to the drawing board following Wed. evening’s Public Safety and Public Works Committee meeting, after confusion spread about the ongoing push from Benton Harbor city leaders to introduce a mobile nuisance party ordinance.

The Director of Public Safety for the City of Benton Harbor, Daniel McGinnis, said there was some confusion on what the ordinance was focused on.

“I’m sorry for that miscommunication… we want to do the right thing for our people. Now we… maybe… have 100 people that cause problems, we got 9000 other people that are great residents, that love Benton Harbor, and love our community and all they want to do is have peace, quiet and safety in their homes… This is not… to penalize residents. They can still have their parties, have their barbecues, have their graduations, its graduation season, open house season, it is not for them. There was a conflation of really the companies that lead to these large gatherings that grow out of control,” said McGinnis.

McGinnis said they’re going to take a look at three areas within the ordinance: the confusing language, a section talking about criminal intent, and looking at if they should change penalties from a misdemeanor to a civil infraction.

“Then there’s some other things that I would like to see us discuss, i.e. closing down the 24-hour stores at two o’clock so there’s not the draw to be there with all the lights that’s under the canopy of the gas station, and it just kind of grows from there. So, I think that we heard the citizens, we heard their comments and suggestions. We’re gonna go back to the drawing board and once we get that done, we’ll put out a clarifying statement on… what this really means so people understand,” said McGinnis.

The ordinance is set to be discussed again at next month’s Benton Harbor’s legislative committee meeting, which takes place on the first Wednesday of the month at 5:30 p.m. at Benton Harbor City Hall.