2008 Woodie Awards
Staff Editorial: Hear this, city council
Our VIew: The plan to extend the period for noise
Staff Editorial
Issue date: 3/13/08 Section: Opinion
Kudos to you, Andrew Friedson, because when the College Park City Council was opting to stand by a new policy that could potentially levy unfair and ridiculously high fines for off-campus noise violations, you stood up for students. Impressive, but will it be enough?
While the decision has been put on hold, the city council's positive outlook on a plan that would implement harsher penalties for residents who are issued noise violations doesn't bode well for students.
Under the current policy, residents found to be creating too much noise face a $500 fine. If the resident doesn't own his or her house, the landlord receives a warning. A second violation within six months of the first would result in a $1,000 fine and a $500 fine for the landlord.
Extending the period in which a student would be issued a second-violation citation from six months to a year has loopholes that have been overlooked at best and can be easily exploited at worst. While the second violation would cost both the landlord and the tenant fines - of $500 and $1,000, respectively - it would leave the door open for the landlord to charge the tenant for their fine, rather than paying it themselves. If, during a given year, a landlord has two tenants, the first of whom incurs multiple noise violations, under the proposed plan the landlord would be charged $500 for the first noise violation of the second tenant. If the landlord passes noise violation fines to tenants, this would result in the second tenant being excessively fined due to the violations of a previous tenant. Hope you didn't need those textbooks.
Council members may believe implementing this policy will help crack down on rowdy parties around College Park - scaring students and residents alike into keeping the noise down at the risk of a possible $1,000 fine for a second violation - but it's simply a poorly researched plan. Can the council be sure new tenants won't get slammed with secondary fines from a previous tenant? How can they guarantee landlords won't pass their own fine to the students to pay off? With such high costs of living in College Park, are the possible positive community aspects worth the financial downfall of students, and even more so, by way of shady and at times unfair means? With so many loopholes open for landlords to pass fines to students, one would imagine that before passing judgment on the policy, the city council would put more thought and research into the plan, making sure to cover these bases.
While the decision has been put on hold, the city council's positive outlook on a plan that would implement harsher penalties for residents who are issued noise violations doesn't bode well for students.
Under the current policy, residents found to be creating too much noise face a $500 fine. If the resident doesn't own his or her house, the landlord receives a warning. A second violation within six months of the first would result in a $1,000 fine and a $500 fine for the landlord.
Extending the period in which a student would be issued a second-violation citation from six months to a year has loopholes that have been overlooked at best and can be easily exploited at worst. While the second violation would cost both the landlord and the tenant fines - of $500 and $1,000, respectively - it would leave the door open for the landlord to charge the tenant for their fine, rather than paying it themselves. If, during a given year, a landlord has two tenants, the first of whom incurs multiple noise violations, under the proposed plan the landlord would be charged $500 for the first noise violation of the second tenant. If the landlord passes noise violation fines to tenants, this would result in the second tenant being excessively fined due to the violations of a previous tenant. Hope you didn't need those textbooks.
Council members may believe implementing this policy will help crack down on rowdy parties around College Park - scaring students and residents alike into keeping the noise down at the risk of a possible $1,000 fine for a second violation - but it's simply a poorly researched plan. Can the council be sure new tenants won't get slammed with secondary fines from a previous tenant? How can they guarantee landlords won't pass their own fine to the students to pay off? With such high costs of living in College Park, are the possible positive community aspects worth the financial downfall of students, and even more so, by way of shady and at times unfair means? With so many loopholes open for landlords to pass fines to students, one would imagine that before passing judgment on the policy, the city council would put more thought and research into the plan, making sure to cover these bases.
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KT/CP
posted 3/13/08 @ 7:41 AM EST
If students and/or irresponsible owners/renters demonstrate a pattern of disregard, contempt or bordering criminal acts then they should be fined and punitive action should be required. (Continued…)
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