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City of Centerville <br />Council Meeting Minutes <br />February 24, 2021 <br /> <br />Council Member King stated that he meant that if the City did not have a Targeted Picketing <br />Ordinance, if the laws that are currently in place in relation to things like, trespassing, blocking <br />roads, or nuisance types and there is a police response, would there be a chance to go to court in <br />violation of 1st Amendment rights. <br /> <br />City Attorney Glaser stated that someone could use that as a defense. <br /> <br />Council Member King questioned what cities have lost cases under that defense. <br /> <br />City Attorney Glaser stated that he does not know off hand, because it is a trial defense, so he <br />would have to do some legal research. He stated that he suspects that there will not be a lot of case <br />law out there that relates to this scenario. <br /> <br />Council Member King stated that he thinks this is addressing something that very rarely happens <br />and is just creating another ordinance. He asked how the Police Department would be trained so <br />they do not get in trouble with 1st Amendment rights. He reiterated that he does not understand <br />why the City would take this action and expects there to be more stuff coming down the road with <br />HB-455 and hopes that it will not make it through the Senate. <br /> <br />Mayor Love noted that he had shared a ‘play book’ for Targeted Picketing with Administrator <br />Statz which is something that the League of Minnesota Cities is working on. He stated that once it <br />receives final approval, it will be shared broadly because Targeted Picketing is becoming more <br />common. He stated that some of the incidents that have happened throughout the State have been <br />pretty scary. He stated that that was one of the reasons that sparked the conversation in the City <br />along with their conversation with the Administrator from Hugo who shared that they wished that <br />they had a few more things on the books to help them handle the situation that arose there last year. <br />He stated that the Legislature is also looking at putting together some ordinances that may impact <br />the entire State related to Targeted Picketing. He stated that in this instance, this is something that <br />they have for their city and is something that can be put into place in order to give the Police <br />officers another tool in their tool bag to protect anyone who may be targeted, as well as the <br />neighbors around that individual. He stated that he agreed with Council Member King that this <br />has not been an issue in the City which has been a great blessing, but there is no guarantee that it <br />st <br />will remain that way. He stated that is not looking to infringe upon anyone’s 1 or 4th Amendment <br />rights but does want to protect individuals in their own homes. He stated that he is full support of <br />this ordinance. <br /> <br />Motion by Council Member Koski, seconded by Council Member Lakso, to Adopt <br />Ordinance #112, Second Series an Ordinance Relating to and Regulating Targeted Picketing <br />in Residential Neighborhoods. <br /> <br />Council Member Lakso stated that this may want to be revisited if something came up that was <br />more standardized and asked how this could be revised. <br /> <br />Mayor Love stated that the toolkit does not give direction on whether these ordinances are good <br />or bad and really just gives a playbook. He stated that one of the things that the City of Hugo said <br />was that they did not have a playbook of how to respond or things that they should have done or <br />thought about. <br />Page 11 of 17 <br /> <br /> <br />