Just when it seemed students and city officials shared a happy medium in terms of parking on Garden Road, the DeKalb City Council Monday night echoed the possibility of again reconsidering their stance.

Currently, students are permitted to park on the east side of Garden Road. The council unanimously passed an ordinance Monday to eliminate 40 feet (about two parking spaces) to alleviate an area that created an obscured view for drivers leaving the Anderson Hall parking lot.

Discussion of this ordinance then broadened into an overall debate involving Garden Road’s inclusive state of condition.

DeKalb Police Chief Bill Feithen presented two interesting numbers that may have furthered the council’s premonitions that Garden Road needs more debate. Feithen said from Jan. 1 to Feb 7, police have issued 377 tickets, which is 46 percent of the city’s total issued tickets.

Feithen also cited continued U-turn violations as a major issue, including one complaint that a driver, in order to avoid congested traffic and claim an open parking spot, drove into a driveway, then through someone’s yard to reach another driveway.

Most aldermen expressed a desire to hold a workshop in the future, and 6th Ward Alderman David Baker concluded the discussion by providing students with a warning.

“I’d warn students again if we don’t have four votes to keep it on, then we may charge for the parking spots,” Baker said.

Another important issue heavily discussed was the installation of a code of ethics for the Plan Commission.

Second Ward Alderman Kris Povlsen said he supports such a code but reluctantly because of free speech concerns.

“I hope we’re putting it in for the right reason and not eliminate members we don’t agree with on the council,” Povlsen said.

Planning Commission Director Paul Rasmussen emphasized that ethics are not laws, but value judgments.

“It’s not going to be perfect but it’s going to get us on the right track,” 1st Ward Alderman Andy Small said.

Third Ward Alderman Steve Kapitan was the only alderman to oppose the code of ethics because he didn’t feel particularly comfortable with the way it was worded.

Kapitan again was alone in disapproving of a resolution to execute an agreement between the City of DeKalb and the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 115. Within this contract, police officers would see pay increases over the course of the next three years and see an increase in the boundaries of where they can live. Among eight other aspects within this agreement, the pay increase sparked the greatest debate.

Kapitan felt with the reflection of a poor city budget and a federal budget deficit, providing pay increases right now would burden the city.

Povlsen said he would support it but did stress that in the future handing out these raises might be something the city could no longer afford.

Finally, Harold Overton, a citizen of DeKalb, presented to the council a 540 plus signed petition of local residents who agreed with the resolution against a preemptive strike on Iraq the council passed two weeks ago.

Mayor Greg Sparrow read a letter he will send to President Bush that summarizes the results of the council’s debate over the war. Sparrow felt opposing war would indicate to those heading to war that the city of DeKalb does not support the country’s decision to fight should they decide that.