DRUG-FREE ZONES AMONG ISSUES SET FOR COUNCIL'S 1ST NET MEETING

Baltimore City Council will return from its holiday recess tonight to
broadcast its first meeting over the Internet, when members will introduce
legislation to save the city's drug-free zones.

Last year, Council President Lawrence A. Bell III spent $150,000 on the
high-tech information system that includes digital cameras in the council
chambers. Previously,the council relied on camera operators and the city's
cable channel to transmit meetings.

Despite criticism for the spending while the city faces a $25 million
budget shortfall next year, Bell has called the technical addition a
revolutionary step in public access that makes Baltimore one of the first
cyberspace councils in the nation.

Tonight, residents with access to the Internet will be able to watch the
inaugural cyber council meeting through its site: http:
//www.baltimorecitycouncil.com. Viewing the transmission will require
residents to have downloaded the free RealPlayer G2 audio program from the
Internet in addition to having at least a 28.8 bps modem.

"It will promote not only the City Council, but the city as a whole as
futuristic and accessible," Bell said. "Hopefully, it will be a role model
for other governments."

The technology will allow interested residents who miss a council broadcast
to view it later by visiting the site, which will contain excerpts from
prior council meetings.

"It's going to work very well for lobbyists and activists trying to track
council members and legislation," said David Brown, a Bell aide who helped
initiate the project.

When the Web site was unveiled in October, Bell was criticized by city
Housing Commissioner Daniel P. Henson III, whose department has been
handling council broadcasts. Henson said he could have provided the
services without the expense and the city could expand its Web site.

"It's a capital investment," Bell said. "We want it to be an educational

tool, and we want students to be able to use it in their model legislatures."

One of the first issues to be introduced at the meeting will be a bill to
save the city's drug-free zones.

Two weeks ago, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke asked the council to eliminate the law
established in 1989 that allows police to search and arrest loiterers in
designated drug-free zones. The zones tend to be located around schools and
in high-crime areas. Prosecutors and judges oppose the law, questioning its
constitutionality as it relates to search and seizure.

Fed up with illegal drug markets in his 4th District, Democratic Councilman
Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. vowed in May to determine whether the drug-free
zones were working. Mitchell found that between January and September, 25
of 26 misdemeanor loitering arrests in the 60 zones established around the
city were not prosecuted.

In a bill he plans to introduce tonight, Mitchell wants to add a civil
penalty to the law that could take the matter out of the courts hands and
leave it as a tool for police to investigate complaints. Under the criminal
law, convicted violators face 30 days in jail and a fine not to exceed $400.

Mitchell is proposing a $500 civil penalty for loitering in a drug-free
zone that would be administered by the city's newly established
Environmental Control Board.