NO `DE-HOODING' ORDINANCE FOUND

A final draft of a new city parades ordinance won't include a "de-hooding" measure promoted by the local NAACP chapter.

The city council tonight will consider the parades law, which is designed to give the Cape Girardeau Police Department more latitude in regulating parades.

At the May 18 council meeting, representatives of the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People urged that the city also try to regulate "rallies."

The NAACP wanted a law to prohibit participants in rallies and parades from concealing their identity by wearing hoods or masks.

But in a letter to the city council, City Attorney Warren Wells said a U.S. District Court in Tennessee ruled unconstitutional a "de-hooding" ordinance in Pulaski, Tenn.

Wells said the law "prohibited parade participants and individuals who were disseminating literature from wearing masks or disguises `to the disturbance of the peace or to the alarming of the citizens.'

"The federal court struck down that provision of the ordinance and ruled it unconstitutional as an inappropriate restriction on free expression."

Concerns about the issue surfaced last month when the NAACP drafted several resolutions the group hoped the city could adopt to prevent possible Ku Klux Klan activity here.

Leaflets circulated earlier this year announced the white-supremacist group was planning a June 13 rally at City Hall. Police have said a single man, who has since moved out of the area, was responsible for the leaflets, and they doubt there will be a rally here.

NAACP President Michael Sterling told the council May 18 that he believed Hannibal had a "de-hooding" ordinance.

But Hannibal officials said last month they have no such ordinance.

When the Klan held a rally in Hannibal in 1982 they were told they couldn't conceal their faces. But the order came as an arbitrary condition of their parade permit issued by the mayor and was not included in the city's code of ordinances.

Wells said last month that he would rather draft an ordinance that specifically prohibits hoods and masks at such rallies rather than extending the reach of the parades ordinance.

However, since a similar measure was found unconstitutional in Tennessee, Wells said in his letter to the council that he hadn't drafted a separate "de-hooding" law.

Other changes that were included in the parades ordinance include a requirement that a legal notice be published whenever a group or individual applies for a parade permit. The permit applicant will be responsible for the publication charge.

Also, the ordinance is considered an "emergency" measure, eligible for final approval at tonight's meeting.

In other business, the council will consider a proposal to redesign the center line on Bertling Street between Oak Hills and West End Boulevard.

The council in March asked that the staff consider the proposal, and at the last council meeting council member Mary Wulfers criticized the staff for not bringing the matter back to the council.

In a letter to the council, City Manager J. Ronald Fischer apologized for the delay.

"Please accept my apologies for my error in not reporting back to the city council in a more timely fashion," he wrote.

Fischer said that he and Police Chief Howard Boyd reviewed the situation and recommend the center line on Bertling Street hill be moved off center, to the north to allow vehicles traveling down hill a wider path.

The council also will consider a resolution authorizing a contract with the Chamber of Commerce for operation of the Convention and Visitors Bureau for fiscal year 1992-93. The proposed Convention and Visitors Bureau budget is $303,210.

Councilmen Melvin Gateley and Doug Richards also are expected to report to the council on a "block-by-block beautification project" in the city's east side.

Public hearings will be held at tonight's meeting regarding:

The request of Michael L. and Paula K. Haas for a special use permit for a storage and woodworking shop at 543 S. Pacific.

The request of First General Baptist Church for a special use permit for a mobile classroom for Sunday School classes at 1812 Cape La Croix Road.

The request of Bruce Masterson and Norberto Velez for a special use permit for overnight parking of a meal truck and a food preparation station at 1826 Bloomfield Road.

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