The city's pilot curfew will continue at least for another two months.

"To date, the curfew is shaping up like we expected it to." That's what John Klofas, RIT criminologist and director of the city's Public Safety Initiatives Center, told City Council members at a special meeting last week called to pass the extension. Council members eventually agreed to the administration's request to extend the curfew through the end of January. But not before airing some concerns.

A few of those concerns had to do with the curfew itself.

South District Councilmember Adam McFadden, who's perhaps been the most ardent proponent of a curfew, was concerned that this one won't grow beyond its current form.

"What is really critical to me is that we don't just extend what we have now," McFadden told representatives of the administration. Instead, he said, the city needs to build the type of infrastructure he and other city leaders saw when looked at Minneapolis's curfew program. That included more integration with other levels of government, particularly in providing social services to youth picked up under the curfew.

"Where are we on a joint powers agreement with the county and the school district?" McFadden asked. "Where are we with a financial commitment from the county and the school district?"

The city administration didn't volunteer any answers.

McFadden seemed unhappy enough to consider scrapping the pilot and pursuing other initiatives, going so far as to mention Washington D.C.'s Drug Free Zone as another option, if the city couldn't make the curfew work.

"I'm okay with this as a pilot," said McFadden. "I'm not okay with this as a final product."

But the majority of the council was more concerned with timing of the meeting. The meeting was called on short notice, and an October 26 report with data on the curfew program was delivered to council members only hours before the meeting. Not enough time, council members complained, even to read it.

Brandishing her copy of the data, Councilmember Gladys Santiago lashed out.

"This at the last minute is outrageous," she said.

Charles Reaves, Commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Human Services, who's been the city's point person for the curfew thus far, fumbled for a response. Eventually he told council members that he'd wanted to provide context and analysis for the data and he didn't realize they might want the raw data themselves. That hardly got him off the hook, though.

Councilmember Bill Pritchard almost immediately shot back: "Don't overlook our collective ability and that of our staff to analyze data."

Pritchard also pointed out that the eleventh-hour delivery of the data meant that he and other council members were forced to vote without even having a chance to discuss the report among themselves. Pritchard, Santiago, and other council members were also concerned about the program's cost. No information was forthcoming, but Police Chief David Moore revealed one interesting bit of information on that front: his department, he said, hasn't used any of the overtime budgeted for the curfew

"We have not utilized overtime at all for this initiative," he said.

Eventually, the extension passed 8 to 1 (Carolee Conklin was the lone no vote). But not before council received an apology from Mayor Duffy for the report's last-minute arrival.

"I'm responsible for that," he told council members. "This administration offers council an apology for that. It will not happen in the future."