Hugo's Hunting Ordinance To Remain Unchanged, For Now
Council Rejects Investigation Of Possible Enforcement Issues
HUGO - In a rare 3-2 vote, the Hugo City Council on June 16 rejected a motion made by Mayor Fran Miron that would have directed staff to compile information on whether hunting activities within the DNR's Paul Hugo Farms Wildlife Management Area violate the city's hunting ordinance.
Miron made his motion during discussion of a petition presented to the city by resident Alice Waller. Waller's petition, referred in May to the council's Ordinance Review Subcommittee, called on the city to adopt an ordinance that would prohibit the discharge of firearms on all public lands and waters.
"I really want council to understand that this petition is about public safety, it isn't about eliminating hunting," Waller said.
"There are going to be lots of people in the soccer park [adjacent to the WMA], and the potential for harm is there."
The subcommittee completed its review and recommended the existing city ordinance remain unchanged. Council elected to take no action on the petition.
The current city ordinance, which has been on the books for about a decade, mandates that a firearm cannot be used to take a wild animal within 500 feet of a building occupied by a human or livestock, or within 500 feet of a stockade or corral containing livestock, anywhere in the city.
It is more restrictive than Minnesota state statute, which City Attorney Dave Snyder says is okay. "Cities have a little bit broader authority" when it comes to the discharge of firearms within city limits, Snyder told council members.
Waller said that she believes hunters don't adhere to the law.
"Maybe added enforcement is all we need here, because I think we've got a pretty good ordinance," Miron said in response to Waller's presentation.
Council Member Becky Petryk, who joined Miron in voting to support the motion, agreed that enforcement of the city's hunting ordinance is an issue. She represents residents who live on the north end of Bald Eagle Lake, an area which, at least in the past, has seen its share of complaints during hunting season made by those who live around the lake perimeter.
According to Petryk, this is an ongoing problem, and not only on Bald Eagle Lake. She doesn't know if it's a problem around Rice Lake.
"We don't know what the measurements are in the WMA" in terms of distance between hunting areas and residences, she said, "so the ordinance is hard to enforce."
"It's difficult when there aren't permanent markers," Petryk said later, adding that she thought Miron's motion to develop a detailed map would have helped clarify ambiguities regarding where hunting is and isn't allowed in the WMA.
But she is adamant that there is a real diff erence between highly urbanized areas of Hugo and the wide open spaces in eastern Hugo.
"This is about public safety," she said.
Council Member Frank Puleo - who voted against Miron's motion along with Council members Chuck Haas and Mike Granger - argued that the question of whether hunting should be allowed on public lands and waters and the question of ordinance enforcement are separate and shouldn't be combined.
"The petition is calling for the elimination of the discharge of firearms on public lands and waters in city of Hugo, but I believe enforcement is a separate issue," he said.
"And I don't think that the residents want to eliminate hunting in the city of Hugo," he added.
Council Member Haas agreed, pointing out that another petition advocating that the city leave its hunting ordinance unchanged has many more signatures than Waller's.
"We had more people in the community that wanted us to leave our regulations as they are rather than change them," he said.
In terms of the ordinance enforcement question, Haas pointed out that other city ordinances are enforced on a "complaint-driven" basis, meaning that the city doesn't look into strengthening enforcement until residents complain that the law is being violated.
"We operate on a complaintdriven basis. The Mayor was suggesting that we depart from that, and I don't think we should," he said.
When asked whether the city has received complaints from residents about violations of the hunting ordinance, Community Development Director Bryan Bear said that "I'm not aware of any regular complaints regarding hunting in any specific areas."
Furthermore, Puleo questioned whether enforcement of the hunting ordinance should be the responsibility of city staff in the first place, since hunting laws are typically enforced by DNR game wardens.
"If there is an enforcement issue, I don't think it should be a city issue. [Residents] should be calling the DNR and the Sheriff and they could go out and investigate," he said.
In any event, the rejection of Miron's motion and the lack of action on Waller's petition probably means that hunting issues are off council's radar for the immediate future.
"There's nothing additional that council has asked the staff to do, and it's not my intention to put it on any future council agendas," Bear said.