MONROE - There were a few minutes at the Monroe City Council meeting Monday when nobody was sure what new animal regulations would be approved. There also was a moment to test the City Council voting ordinance.

The council held a required public hearing before approving the rewording of several sections in the city code.

The rewording was to clarify some sections of animal regulations and to stipulate more precise intentions and procedures in other sections.

No one spoke at the public hearing; however, Alderman Chuck Koch raised two concerns that he said should be addressed before passing the ordinance sections.

Koch stated that the provision that "no animal" be allowed in the city parks or cemetery, except Forest Prairie Park, provided too broad a definition. Some animals should, understandably, not be allowed in parks, he said. But he felt there should be a limit on what was not allowed.

"What if some one wants to take their pet bird to the park?" he asked. "Are we going to make criminals out of our citizens?"

The other concern Koch raised was the exclusion of fish from record keeping in commercial animal establishments.

Koch noted viruses and diseases in fish were "becoming quite prominent" and referenced a viral fish kill this summer in some area lakes.

"There's no evidence that it (the virus) was imported," Koch said, but anyone raising fish should not be given a "free hand." Koch believed keeping records would provide a "paper trail" to track diseases in fish.

Koch received no second on his motion to send the ordinance back to the Judiciary and Ordinance Review Committee.

Instead, Alderman Mike Capesius made a motion to amend the "no animals in the parks" to include "except as authorized by the Park Board." Capesius said the change would give authorization to the Park Board to make a pet area or pet park in the future. Jan Lefevre seconded the motion.

The voice vote to pass the motion was too close to call, and Mayor Ron Marsh called for a roll call vote.

Aldermen Neal Hunter, Paul Hannes, Koch and Thurston Hanson voted no; Lefevre, Keith Ingwell, Dan Henke and Capesius voted yes. Mark Coplien and Charles Shuringa were absent.

"I think we have a moment in history," City Attorney Rex Ewald said, citing another opportunity for Mayor Ron Marsh to cast a tiebreaking vote.

But Marsh declined.

"I will hold true to my word. I will not break a tie vote," he said. "The amendment does not pass."

Returning to the original motion to pass the ordinance as presented, the motion carried, with Koch voting against and Shuringa and Coplien absent.