Curfew has tenuous support on Iowa City Council

The City Council is still split on whether Iowa City should have a curfew for juveniles, but it appears the balance is tipped in support of creating one.

After a two-month break, the council at a work session last night resumed discussion of the curfew proposal.

Tonight, the council is scheduled to hold the second of three readings needed to create a curfew, which would begin at midnight for 16- and 17-year-olds, 11 p.m. for 14- and 15-year-olds and 10 p.m. for those 13 and younger.

At the work session, council members Connie Champion and Mike O'Donnell said they supported the curfew. After the meeting, Matt Hayek and Mike Wright told The Gazette they also favored a curfew. That would give the measure the four votes needed for approval.

The outcome is not a given, though, with Wright saying, “I am still probably in the reluctant-support camp.”

Those same four voted in favor the curfew at the first reading in September. But Champion and Wright later joined Mayor Regenia Bailey, Amy Correia and Ross Wilburn in opting to defer further action until December.

They did so at the request of a grass-roots neighborhood group whose members asked for a chance to work with residents in southeast Iowa City, where the curfew idea originated after a series of violent incidents earlier this year.

In a written update to the council, the group, which goes by the Safe Neighborhoods Coalition, said it has surveyed residents and plans to hold meetings and development recommendations early next year.

Hayek said he applauded the group for its work but didn't see that effort and a curfew, which is supported by the Police Department, as mutually exclusive.

Correia said with school in session and winter approaching, kids aren't on the streets at night as much and a curfew wasn't necessary at this time. She asked that the neighborhood coalition be given time.