Council Expected to End Youth Curfew

A divided City Council is expected to render its final vote Monday on repealing the city’s controversial daytime curfew aimed at curtailing juvenile truancy.

By a 3-2 vote last month, the council approved first reading of an ordinance that calls for repealing the curfew. Council members have said nothing has changed their minds on the subject, and another 3-2 vote seems likely on the second and final reading.

Repeal would take place 30 days after the final vote on the ordinance.

The curfew was passed Oct. 28 by the outgoing City Council, 3 to 2. The three in favor were council members Gail H. Kerry, Cecilia L. Age and Walter K. Bowman. Council members Tom Carroll and Mary Ann Jones strongly opposed the curfew and voted against it.

In November, Kerry and Age retired from the council, and they were replaced by newly elected members Tom Keenan and Anna Piercy. Keenan had campaigned against the curfew; Piercy campaigned for it. The new membership, however, shifted the balance so that Keenan, Carroll and Jones had a majority opposed to the curfew.

“Cypress does not have a truancy problem,” Jones said. “There’s already a law, in the [state] Education Code, on the books that gives police power to detain suspected truants. I don’t think we need a redundant law.”

The city staff also has been divided on the daytime curfew, with Police Chief Daryl Wicker supporting it and City Atty. John E. Cavanaugh opposed.

Last fall, law officers mounted a countywide effort to get all cities in Orange County to adopt a daytime curfew.

They argued that truants caused many crimes and that police needed more power to handle juveniles not in school. But a furor arose over the curfew issue, and only four cities--Cypress, Seal Beach, Buena Park and La Habra--adopted the idea.