New Rohnert Park ordinance to crack down on parties

Rohnert Park plans to change the way students at Sonoma State celebrate the college life with a series of alterations to the city's party ordinances.

While Rohnert Park is by no means considered a college/party town, members of the community and the council are looking for a way to allow police more freedom and legal room to break up a gathering and penalize those involved.

"This is not designed to break up a family party," said ASI Senator Jason Villegiante. "It is blatantly attacking kids from school."

According to Mayor Pam Stafford,  the intent of the council is not to drive students away. "I don't think that we want to be so awful to these kids that they just can't even have a party and have more than six people," said Stafford.

After much deliberation at the July 27 meeting, members agreed on six new changes. The term party would be changed to "loud and unruly gathering" and the 60-day probationary period would be extended to 120 days.  The fine for the first offense becomes $100 and a cap would be placed on the number of people at an event at 10.

In addition to this, the police would be able to fine all responsible members for breaking the law.  This means that all tenants in a residence could possibly be penalized for a disturbance instead of just one.

In an open forum at SSU students gathered on Tuesday, Aug. 17 to discuss the possible changes in policy and gather ideas to protest the changes.

"It creates a rift between the community and the students," said Vince Morrow, President of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.

While city-wide boycotts have been suggested by students on Facebook, ASI President, Bridgette Dussan suggested that the best solution was for students to be more respectful of their neighbors.

"The main opponents are the ones with families who have kids that get up for school or who get up early for work," said Dussan. In addition, she sent out a Facebook message urging students to inform neighbors of upcoming gatherings, be respectful and keep the noise down and to clean up after themselves.

The call for tougher standards in the ordinance comes from an increase in the number of "party calls" the Rohnert Park Police have received in the last two statistical years. Compared to a decrease in 2005 and 2006, the number of calls rose 16 percent in 2007 and an additional one percent in 2008.

The Public Safety Department mentioned two main areas of concern: parties scheduled the night after the famed "60 day" probation period has ended, and "loud and unruly gatherings" with less than 10 people in attendance. The policy changes are also aimed at deterring repeat offenders, something that RP Public Safety Technical Adviser, Wulff Reinhold mentioned at the meeting is a serious problem.