Politics & Government

Parade Ordinance on City Council Agenda

The city's parade ordinance, about to turn 4 years old, is back before the City Council.

The city’s Parade Ordinance, born in 2007 following informal street parades and demonstrations of good will during the 2006 World Cup Soccer championships, is back on the City Council agenda.

The parades were criticized while they were going on for slowing Main Street to a crawl. People drove cars down Main Street at about 5 miles per hour, honking horns, and hanging out of car windows, waving flags.

Brazil won World Cup soccer games against Croatia on June 13, 2006; Australia on June 18; Japan on June 22 and it lost to Ghana on June 27. The farther Brazil advanced, the more parades took place.

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In response, the city passed a parade ordinance in 2007. Democrats on the City Council want the ordinance reviewed for several reasons.

The request for the council to reconsider its 2007 parade ordinance came from the council’s Democratic members, including Paul Rotello, 6th ward; Ben Chianese, 6th ward; Fred Fisconti, 5th ward; Duane Perkins, 5th ward; Tom Saadi, minority leader; and Peter Nero, 4th ward.

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Rotello said he signed on to reconsider the ordinance, because it can’t be enforced fairly, and it is costing the city money.

“We used to collect parade fees,” Rotello said. “Now it’s $100 for the permit, and that’s it.”

Rotello said the city should recover the cost of police putting up barricades and protecting pedestrians in intersections.

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton said the city is four years past this ordinance, and if the Democrats had legitimate issues raised by people in the community, they had four years to hold a meeting of the ad hoc Parade Ordinance committee. The committee didn’t meet. The council eliminated that committee in 2010.

“This is purely political,” Boughton said.

He said people are free to gather and hold parades or political events in Danbury. He said, for instance, 5,000 people protested outside of City Hall in February 2008 against the city’s involvement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement regarding the 287 law. The law allowed Danbury police officers to be trained in enforcing immigration law. The protest was against the city’s deal with ICE.

“It was a protest. It was well run,” Boughton said. He said that protest didn’t require a permit for the simple reason it was protected political speech and it wasn’t disrupting traffic.

"It's working. Why do you have to pick it apart, because the other party created it," asked Joe Cavo, city council president. "Very few people are concerned with this issue."

Rotello said the new ordinance cost the city money, because people now pay $100 for the parade permit, but nothing for the police officers who put up barricades and stop cars from crossing the intersections as people walk by. He said it's the kind of law that might be enforced against a group someone doesn't like, but not enforced against a popular group.

Boughton disagreed. He said for big events, where police are required, the organizers are charged a fee to offset the police costs. He said the old law was harder to enforce. With this one, everybody gets charged the $100.

“The problem with the old system was it was arbitrary. We couldn’t decide how to do it. Would the Ancient Order of the Hibernians pay, but not St. Peter’s?” Boughton asked. “Now everybody pays $100.”

The issue will be taken up again at Tuesday’s City Council meeting at 7:30 p.m.


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