Wrangell’s municipal government is considering new codes of conduct and trespass laws on public property. The move comes after threats, including death threats, were allegedly made against several officials on borough-owned property.
While the situation is under investigation, Borough Manager Mason Villarma says they want to be able to respond to similar incidents in the future.
Here’s Villarma at a meeting earlier in the month.
Recently, there’s been a community member that made some threats against a … series of borough officials, and we didn’t have a whole lot of tools within our municipal code to act upon it.
The assembly had its first read of a consolidated “Code of Conduct and Trespass On Public Property” chapter at their meeting on September 22. They voted unanimously to move it forward to a second reading, public comment and potential adoption at their Oct. 13 meeting.
The standards of conduct within the code “identifies conduct that may result in removal, exclusion, restricted access, conditional access, or other protective action,” according to meeting materials.
Villarma explained to the assembly that it would allow employees to request that people who violate the code leave borough property. If the individual fails to do so, officials could request police remove them on the grounds of trespassing.
Depending on the extent of the threatening or harmful behavior, the borough may impose a probation period on the individual, barring them from returning to the property where the event occurred for a period the borough decides.
During the first read of the code ordinance, Assembly Member Dan Powers expressed concern over protecting residents’ constitutionally protected First Amendment right to express their opinion. But he ultimately supported considering a new code.
Here’s Villarma during an interview following the assembly meeting.
This has nothing to do with people’s freedom of expression or speech or representing their opinions. In fact, that’s all very much encouraged. But if there are serious threats, in this case death threats, made to particular members that serve the public, we need to be able to take measures that are appropriate for those circumstances.
Villarma pointed out that there had been a code of conduct on the books at one point, but it was removed for some reason before his tenure as manager. He assured the assembly that they fully intend to protect people’s rights, but also have a duty to protect their
