Despite last week’s recommendation from a Haines Borough Assembly committee to comb through a minor offense ordinance that has caused public outcry, it’s not clear leaders will go in that direction.

The ordinance compiles existing borough violations outlined in various sections of code into a single list. It also establishes fines ranging from $25-$500 for the violations, referred to as “minor offenses.”

Last week, an assembly committee voted to schedule further meetings to dissect the list of minor offenses, aiming to cut questionable ones.

However, the full assembly on Tuesday indefinitely “postponed” those committee meetings, leaving the full ordinance on its regularly scheduled path for approval.

Members Mike Case, Diana Lapham and Ron Jackson advocated for moving the ordinance forward instead of dissecting it. Although their motion failed 3-2, the ordinance will still move ahead due to the public hearing schedule set June 9 during introduction of the ordinance.

Mayor Jan Hill said she would get together with committee chair Dave Berry to “put our heads together” and discuss the date and agenda of the next committee meeting.

On Wednesday, clerk Julie Cozzi said a new date hadn’t yet been scheduled and would not likely be set by press time. For updates on the meeting, contact Cozzi at 766-2231 ex. 31.

Assembly member George Campbell strongly advised the group against pushing onward without taking a closer look at the ordinance.

“What we have before us is a minor offense list created mostly by people that are truly not long-term Haines residents and we have a citizenry that does not like the fact that these minor offenses, though they reflect code, they reflect code that the people do not like,” Campbell said. “I disagree with pushing this forward until we’ve got things cleaned up.”

Residents have called the ordinance “Draconian,” “Orwellian,” and “ridiculous.”

Assembly member Case this week seemed unaware of these comments, though he attended the committee meeting last week where residents testified against the ordinance.

“You made the statement that the people don’t like it,” Case said, addressing Campbell. “Well, I don’t know who the people are. They recommend, or rather, they elect us to represent them and I’ve never had anybody come to me and say, ‘I think that all of the minor offenses or even a majority of them or even some of them in the code are bad.’ I have no doubt that there are some of them, but it’s not a huge problem.”

Case called the ordinance “very well thought-out” and “good for both the courts and for us.”

Berry and Campbell balked at Case’s claim that he hadn’t heard from anyone on the ordinance. “If I knew your number, I’d be making them call you,” Berry said.

“Mr. Case, I’m sorry I haven’t referred people to you, but I will,” Campbell added. “I have gotten more comments and more phone calls about this issue than I got about (the Haines Animal Rescue Kennel). It’s been a steady stream.”

Like Case, assembly member Lapham said she wanted the issue to just move on. “This has gone too long. The confusion is so far-flung now we’re not going to be able to talk common sense or get the people who are off track on this back on track with us.”

Berry seemed confused by the resistance to combing through the ordinance, as the motion to do so passed the committee 4-0. “That’s the idea I thought we took out of the GAS committee meeting is that we were going to address section by section so that we could address the concerns of the people that were present at the public hearing.”

The first public hearing is scheduled for Aug. 25.