A marathon meeting packed with public testimony on issues ranging from the draft 2010 operating budget to a proposed special events ordinance tested the Homer City Council's endurance Monday. Along with passing a resolution supporting the Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge and considering an ordinance regulating large events like Hoka Hey, the council overrode Mayor Pro-tem Dennis Novak's veto of an ordinance regulating wind energy systems.

At its Sept. 14 meeting, Novak had tried but failed to get the council to reconsider the ordinance. Acting as mayor during Mayor James Hornaday's excused absence, Novak struck down the ordinance. The council overrode the veto by the two-thirds minimum needed in a 4-2 vote, with Novak and council member David Lewis voting to uphold the veto.

Novak said the ordinance should include other alternative energy systems.

"There's more than one way to generate energy, and I think they should all have a shot at it," he said.

He also argued that the ordinance was flawed, and should be fixed now instead of later. council member Francie Roberts disagreed with Novak.

"I'd rather keep this ordinance on the books and bring some improvements over the next month or so," she said.

Spurred on by the prospect of around 2,500 people coming to Homer next year for the Hoka Hey event, the council has been considering an ordinance to set up a permit system for special events. The ordinance would require events that impact on city services to get a permit, though it sets less-rigorous conditions for "expressive events," as the ordinance calls political and religious events.

Based on a similar ordinance from Key West, Fla. -- the start of the Hoka Hey -- a version introduced at the Sept. 14 council meeting drew fierce opposition from free-speech advocates testifying Monday night.

"The twin rights to free speech and public assembly are cornerstones of a free society," said Dean Ravin. "The right to assemble is inherent in the people, and such right is inalienable. The Homer City Council has no standing from which to permit, deny or regulate any assembly of citizens."

"This is regressive and repressive," said Mike Kennedy. "You can't regulate the people's right to assemble."

"The Bill of Rights builds a wall between the government and the people," said Irwin Ravin. "This is a treasonous document."

At the Committee of the Whole meeting Monday afternoon, the council recognized the special events ordinance needed some work. Acting City Manager and Homer Police Chief Mark Robl told the council he'd talked to City Manager Walt Wrede before Wrede left for vacation and Wrede had suggested postponing the ordinance.

"We're trying to encompass a permit system for everything from a neighborhood block party to a 3,000-person motorcycle rally," Robl said.

Council member Beth Wythe acknowledged some of the comments.

"There were a lot of valid conversations tonight regarding this and people's individual rights," she said.

In a 5-1 vote the council agreed to postpone the ordinance, 09-44, and a substitute version for consideration at its Oct. 26 meeting. Councilmember Bryan Zak voted against postponing the ordinance, but only because he wanted to defeat it that night.

In other actions, the council:

* Defeated an ordinance changing the meeting schedule to every-other-month for the Port and Harbor Advisory Commission, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission and the Economic Development Commission. It passed resolutions allowing Parks and Recreation to meet bi-monthly from October to April and the Public Arts Committee and Transportation Advisory Committee to meet quarterly.

* Substituted an ordinance requiring homes and businesses connected to temporary water and sewer lines to connect to main lines with a different ordinance. A second public hearing on that issue is Oct. 12.

* At the request of Planning Director Rick Abboud, referred to the Homer Advisory Planning Commission two ordinances setting criteria for replacing old, noncomforming mobile homes with new mobile homes. One ordinance made an exception for Robert Nakada's home and another applied it to other homeowners in his situation.

* Accepted and appropriated a National Scenic Byways grant of $63,000 and a local match of $31,000 to design and extend the Homer Spit trail.

* Approved a resolution supporting a proposal to reclassify 10 acres of Kenai Peninsula Borough near Lookout Mountain from residential to recreational land.

* Postponed action on extending the University of Alaska Anchorage Kachemak Bay Campus lease of the old Homer Intermediate School.

The next Homer City Council meeting is at 7 p.m. Oct. 12 in the Cowles Council Chambers.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong.@homernews.com.