PROTESTERS' RALLY RESTRICTED

Activist Will Appeal City's Decision

City officials have turned down in part Ben Masel's request to hold a
two-day protest rally on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard during the
upcoming U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting.

The meeting is set for mid-June at the Monona Terrace Convention Center.
Masel, longtime organizer of the annual Weedstock festival near Baraboo,
wanted to use the 100 and 200 blocks of the boulevard June 14-15, but the
city's street use staff team said the 200 block - closer to Monona Terrace
- - was off limits due to "security concerns."

Masel said on Wednesday that he would appeal the staff team's decision
administratively and sue in court if necessary.

"I appreciate the gesture of accommodating free speech but I just wish it
had gone far enough to say we could live with it, but it didn't," he said.

The purpose of the political forum is to allow activists to exercise their
First Amendment rights and communicate concerns they have to visiting
mayors and other dignitaries, said Masel. His own annual Weedstock
festival, which advocates the legalization of marijuana, would be folded
into the event, he said.

Masel said that it would be much harder to get "political messages to the
mayors' conference" from the 100 block of the boulevard. He also told the
staff team at a meeting on Wednesday that restricting access in this way
might fan the flames of discontent among activists.

"If there's a perception of access to the mayors conference, there will be
a whole lot less of the kind of frustration that might cause problems
there," said Masel.

Kelli Lamberty, who oversees the street use staff team, said that no one
has ever appealed a permit decision by the staff team. She said she wasn't
sure of the process and City Attorney Lara Mainella, who provides legal
counsel to the staff team, did not return a phone call.

Masel said the ordinance is confusing but thinks he can either appeal the
decision to an administrative board or directly to the City Council.

"If I can appeal straight to the Common Council I think that's the way I
want to go," he said.

Lamberty said that no permits would be issued for the 200 block of Martin
Luther King Jr. Blvd. during the annual mayors meeting. That means that
conference organizers will have to reroute a planned procession for
Saturday evening that is intended to bring visiting mayors from the state
Capitol back to Monona Terrace.

"They'll need to come back with an alternative," said Lamberty.

Because of heightened fears about terrorism in the wake of Sept. 11, and
the possibility that Vice President Dick Cheney or President George W. Bush
might attend the conference, security concerns have grown in importance
since the days when Madison first sought to host the annual mayors conference.

And security is going to cost more than $92,000, as was originally
budgeted, said Mayor Sue Bauman on Wednesday.

"We're waiting for a revised budget from the police department," said
Bauman. "It's not clear how much above $92,000 we're talking about."

Bauman said that additional private fund-raising would have to be done to
make up the difference.

"Security is a high priority," she said.