Police will soon be able to cite people for commotion again.

The Marshalltown City Council passed a noise control ordinance because the previous one in the books was struck down by a federal court last year. The council approved the measure unanimously.

“We haven’t had an ordinance we could lawfully enforce since September of last year,” said Marshalltown Police Chief Mike Tupper.

The ordinance would not affect firework noise, because the city has a different ordinance handling those complaints.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger ruled in 2019 that part of Iowa’s disorderly conduct law is unconstitutional and vague.

“That portion of the code that was ruled unconstitutional was commonly used by cities across Iowa in their city ordinances to help us deal with noise complaints,” Tupper said.

The previous law stopped people from making loud and raucous noise around residential or public buildings.

“The hope was the Iowa Legislature, in the 2020 session, was going to fix this problem,” Tupper said. “COVID-19 had another plan and they never got to it.”

The Marshalltown Police Department is looking to get tools to measure decibel levels to enforce the ordinance.

Tupper said the MPD gets a lot of noise complaint calls.

“It’s a common problem we would prefer not to have,” Tupper said.

The council passed the first reading of the ordinance, and Council member Al Hoop made a failed motion to waive the second and third readings of the motion. The waiver was voted down 4 to 3. The council will need to vote on the ordinance two more times before it can go into effect.

“We need to do something. We can’t wait any more,” Tupper said. “I can’t send my cops to enforce a law that we don’t have.”

In other business the council passed the final reading of an ordinance to raise parking ticket prices by $5.

Initially fines for alternative parking is $15, front yard parking and fire lane parking are $25. The ordinance would increase those fines by $5 each, bring the alternative parking fine to $20 and the fire lane and front yard parking fines to $30.

Raising parking tickets by $5 each was budgeted to generate an additional $17,500 for the general fund.

The ordinance passed 6 to 1 with only Council member Sue Cahill voting against.

This was the first council meeting where the public was invited to attend in person since March 23. No members of the public were present, but several still participated digitally.

Monday’s council meeting was Shari Coughenour’s last meeting, she has been Marshalltown’s city clerk since 2000.

During the meeting Jessica Kinser, city administrator, presented her with a plaque commemorating her service.

She was greeted with applause as she accepted the plaque from city staff and council members.

“We’re going to miss you,” said Mayor Joel Greer.

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Contact Thomas Nelson at 641-753-6611 or tnelson@timesrepublican.com