I wrote the following on December 4th on Jonathan Krause's blog. Krause is the news director for WOSH/WVBO radio in Oshkosh, my preferred morning local news stations. I wrote it in response to a paragraph from that day's blog:
Jonathan,
I've followed the rooster imbroglio since it first came up before the Neenah Public Services & Safety Committee on October 28th. During that meeting, the committee members discussed desultorily for 25 minutes what to do, if anything. The city attorney was directed to draw up an ordinance similar to the Madison ordinance dealing with chickens.
The next meeting of the PS&S Committee was on November 25th. At that meeting, City Attorney Godlewski's draft of Ordinance 1382 was examined. On a vote of 4-1 (Nick Piergrossi dissenting, though he was the one who made the motion at the October meeting to direct the City Attorney to draw up the ordinance) the committee voted to recommend that the City Council approve it.
Those are the mechanics. What's really up with this?
At the December 3rd Neenah City Council meeting I sat behind Mr. and Mrs. Crane, the aggrieved neighbors, and in front of Mr. Rocke, Jake the rooster's owner. Both Mr. Crane and Mr. Rocke spoke during the Public Forum section of the meeting. Mr. Crane described how the annoyance factor has increased over time. He claimed that Jake crows about every 15 minutes for 3-4 minutes at a time. He also related that his wife, while shooing the flock of hens back into Mr. Rocke's yard after their brief sojourn into the Cranes' yard, was attacked by Jake. I've been told that Mr. Rocke himself came to take Jake away.
Mr. Rocke, I think, was quite condescending towards the Cranes during his presentation. He's gone all day, so he doesn't get the full, repetitive force of Jake's behavior.
Alderman Nick Piergrossi told me that he went to visit the Cranes after they called him about all this back in the summer. When he got out of his car Jake crowed as if on cue. Nick didn't think it was that loud from the street. But when he went into the Cranes' kitchen, the proximity of Mr. Locke's house and the echoing between them caused Jake's crows to be much louder.
You may be thinking that this is all insignificant versus the fact that there's a chicken coop ordinance at all in the city of Neenah. Yes, it's funny. Yes, it's fun to think up ways for the Cranes to get relief from the lusty-lunged Jake.
A coworker of mine said simply that he would have shot the rooster once it wandered onto his property. I explained to him that that simply isn't done within the confines of a sophisticated city. He just looked at me with pity.
My suggestion is that the Cranes raise a pet falcon.
But, seriously, as Mayor Scherck reminded us during Wednesday's Council meeting, we have the law in place. If a situation arises that isn't covered by the law, the Council has to act, even though it may appear risible to the outside world and everybody's "common sense".
Mr. Locke has complied with all the law's provisions. The police came to his house to check out the level of nuisance caused by Jake's crows and determined that they do NOT violate the city noise ordinance.
City Attorney Godlewski conducted some research on similar ordinances in drawing up his revised version of the current chicken coop ordinance. He said that changing the conditions of an ordinance is certainly permissible. However, there are plenty of court cases that hold that an "amortization" period needs to be put in place, say, in a zoning law change. You can't simply say to a property owner that his outbuilding, which was in compliance yesterday, is no longer in compliance today and that he has to move, paint, or demolish it immediately. Doesn't work that way. That's what "grandfathering" means.
So, Jake is to be "grandfathered" in the revised ordinance. Mr. Crane asked that Jake NOT be grandfathered. The 50 minute discussion at the Neenah Council wound up with Alderman Jim Hemes' motion to return the ordinance to committee tied at 4-4. (There are 9 aldermen on the Neenah Council, but Lee Hillstrom was absent that night.)
Once the tied vote became clear, the Mayor -- who must break all ties -- moaned, "You gotta be kidding me, you guys!" He had grown tired of the discussion after 25 minutes, but was giving every alderman who wanted to speak the chance to do so. Only one, Judy Zaretzky, said not a single word during the entire 50 minutes.
You're right that allowing chicken coops in the city at all is silly. However, the Council cannot simply ignore the law. It has to play with the hand it's been dealt.
I think that Jake could be dealt with under a loose interpretation of the current nuisance ordinance, but I'm not going to have any influence on what the Council decides to do.
Steve Erbach
Neenah, WI
http://www.TheTownCrank.com