Kiel council adopts package of municipal code changes, approves police staffing moves and ends shared court agreement

Kiel City Council members adopted a package of municipal code changes, approved personnel moves in the police department, voted to end a shared municipal-court agreement and authorized equipment and routine administrative spending at their meeting.

The council voted unanimously on a slate of ordinances — Nos. 6-22 through 6-30 — that update rules on signage, city purchasing, prohibitions on sexting, tree clearance and maintenance, operation of electric bicycles, consolidation of outdoor-premises and special-events permitting, and weight limits on city streets. Council members recorded a 6-0 vote on each ordinance.

Why it matters: the ordinance package is intended to clarify enforcement and streamline permitting, council members said. For example, changes to the city’s sign rules specify that moving a sign on a property does not reset time-based limitations; tree-code amendments raise the required clearance above rights-of-way; and a rewritten weight-limit ordinance replaces a conflicting earlier…