Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Ordinance Publication topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Highland Park council declines immediate action on resolution to publish full ordinances online
Summary
Council members and residents pressed for clearer online access to Highland Park’s municipal code and questioned enforcement of tickets tied to ordinances still being updated online. A motion to approve a veto resolution requesting online publication (item 5) was declared "dead on arrival."
Council members and residents on Tuesday confronted gaps in public access to Highland Park’s ordinances but took no formal action on a resolution aimed at publishing full ordinances online. Residents and council members during public comment said the city’s muni code is difficult to navigate and that tickets have been issued when the supporting ordinance text could not be found.
Robert Douglas Lodge Jr., a Highland Park resident, told the council he was "thankful for the mayor's words of knowledge and information" and thanked members who supported a resolution on public access to ordinances. Leila Martin, who identified herself as a Highland Park resident and councilwoman during public comment, said she was concerned that "we're sending tickets to people, and they're not able to find the law that supports the tickets that have been written." She cited charter review obligations and asked why citations appear when the online code is not easy to find.
Council members and residents demonstrated how to access the municipal code through the city website and noted the city has contracted with a vendor (identified generically in discussion as a muni-code provider) to update the online code. A remote participant and other speakers said the vendor has been paid and is adding sections, but several people said findability remains a problem.
Council moved to consider a veto resolution requesting online publication of full ordinances (item 5). After brief exchanges on procedure and whether the council wanted further discussion, the council president declared the item "dead on arrival," meaning no action was taken at the meeting.
The meeting record shows the council committed to uploading documents and noted that proposed minutes and ordinances are available online when posted, but participants urged faster, clearer publication so residents can locate the specific ordinance language used in enforcement.
The matter remained unresolved by the end of the meeting; the council did not vote to approve the veto resolution and no follow-up deadline was specified.
