Council OKs simpler process for complaints about noise
   Milwaukee Common Council on Tuesday revived a noise ordinance that makes it easier for neighbors and police to target loud car stereos.
   The noise measure was in place as an experiment from May through December of last year. The council voted 14-1 to reinstate it.
   An older ordinance already prohibited excessive noise. The new measure streamlines the complaint process by copying features of the city's nuisance property ordinance, often used to close drug houses.
   For most traffic violations, Wisconsin law requires police to ticket a vehicle's driver, not the owner. That usually means officers must witness a violation and act at once, instead of writing down a license plate number and mailing a ticket to the person to whom the car is registered.
  Under the new ordinance, residents can give police a license number and the time and place of the violation. Then police can mail a warning letter to the vehicle's owner. After that, the owner is charged for the enforcement costs of any subsequent violations.
   Aid. Bob Donovan, the measure's chief sponsor, says publicity about the ordinance helped reduce noise complaints in his south side district over the summer. Police issued 360 tickets under the new ordinance last year, compared with 1,202 under the old rules in 2008, down from 1,919 in 2007.
   The only opposition Tuesday came from Aid. Milele Coggs, who also voted against the measure last year. She has said she believes enforcement would be too subjective.
   Although Donovan has focused on car stereos, he has said the measure could be used against loud motorcycles or other noise.
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   The Council confirmed Mayor Tom Barrett's nomination of Art Dahlberg to run the Department of Neighborhood Services. Dahlberg is the building commissioner in Richmond, Va., and previously was in charge of code enforcement in the Virginia cities of Alexandria and Fairfax. He will be paid about $133,000 a year to succeed Marty Collins, who retired last year.