Mayor's Code Enforcement Committee Meeting - July 13, 2026
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Mayor's Code Enforcement Committee Meeting
The Mayor's Code Enforcement Committee met on July 13, 2026, at 9:01 a.m. (Note: The transcript identifies the meeting date as July 9, 2026; the provided metadata indicates July 13, 2026.) The committee approved prior minutes, discussed a proposed fire pit ordinance, received a litigation update, and reviewed a cannabis enforcement ordinance. All votes were unanimous.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Minutes (June 11, 2026): Motion by Danielle, seconded by Scott. Approved unanimously at 9:02 a.m.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were made; no members of the public were present, and the public session was closed.
Discussion Items
- Proposed Fire Pit Ordinance: The chair said the red-lined ordinance was drafted to align with DEEP guidance and state law. A request from South Fire for additional review led to a proposal to table consideration. James of South Fire confirmed they needed to meet with all three fire departments. Nick asked about the 8 a.m. to midnight time limit; James said it could be changed and cited 10 p.m. limits in other towns. The committee voted to table the item to next month.
- Litigation Update – 455 and 465 Middlefield: The city filed a brief on behalf of the Zoning Board of Appeals the previous week. A court argument is expected in the fall, with timing at the court's discretion. No new complaints or activity were reported by the health department, police, or residents.
- Cannabis Ordinance: A reworked ordinance allowing municipal action against landlords renting to businesses selling cannabis products without a license will go to the Board of Health next week, then to Public Safety, GCC, and the City Council. Nick reported that at Harbor Park, officers asked people smoking marijuana to leave after family complaints, but noted current ordinances lacked enforcement teeth in that area; he hopes the new ordinance will provide better enforcement.
Key Outcomes
- Unanimously approved the June 11, 2026 meeting minutes.
- Unanimously voted to table the fire pit ordinance until the next month's meeting (motion by Scott, second by Neil).
- The cannabis ordinance remains on track: Board of Health next week, then Public Safety, GCC, and Council.
- Meeting adjourned at 9:10 a.m.
Meeting Transcript
All right, good morning, everybody. Good morning, everybody. We are now recording. I'm calling this morning's meeting of the mayor's code enforcement committee to order at 9 01 a.m. on July 9th, 2026. First item on the agenda is the approval of minutes from our last meeting on June 11th. Do I have a motion for approval of the minutes? Danielle, thank you. Do I have a second? Scott, thank you. Any discussion on the motion? Anything that needs to be fixed or in the ordinances in the um meeting minutes. All right, seeing none. All in favor, please unmute yourselves and so signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions. Seeing none, the motion passes unanimously at 9 02 a.m. Um, the next item on the agenda is the public session. I do not see any members of the public here for public session, so I will be closing the public session and moving on. We have no new business. And under old business under city fire, we have a red-lined proposed um fire pit ordinance. Um we can discuss it today, but I did get a request from South Fire that they wanted another month to take a look at it and to provide any revisions or changes. I got a call from James or an email from James earlier this week asking that. Um so if if he arrives before the end of this meeting, I'm sure he can speak to that. But um while we're discussing it and while it's it's on our agenda, you know, the the proposed ordinance basically um I drafted it. The intent was after meeting with the fire marshals and the fire department to bring our um fire pit and open burning ordinances into line with the um with deep guidance and state law. There are a few statutes that that talk about what is required, what is allowed. So I literally um tried to mirror that language and bring it in line with with state standard. Um there are you know some things that we can be as a municipality, we can be um strict than what the state requires. So if you know the state requires the 15-foot setback, we can do a 20 and things like that. Um, but I didn't know if oh, and James is here, so he can talk about it too. If if anyone has any thoughts or discussions or changes or you know, questions about the about the ordinance. Yeah, we're gonna ask if we have table this for next month's meeting because we are gonna meet with all three uh fire departments and uh review the changes that we made. Uh proposing at the next meeting. Yep, thanks, Al. Um, you know, after you guys have looked at anything that stands out to you so thus far, or that you really need to meet and go over it. Yeah, we definitely have to meet because it's gonna be a little different for uh uh separate areas. Uh you know, the north end is a little different and south, and there's gonna be some parameters that we have to look into and change. Okay. Um thank you. And I've I I've seen in the chat from James, he says, good morning. We have no microphone for further discussion next month. Thank you. Okay. So at this point, if does anyone else have any discussion? Nick, go ahead. I just had one question about I saw there was a there's time limits on on fires. It's an 8 a.m. to night um time limit, and I was just wondering why that was or the thought process there.
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