There was over an hour of testimony and conversation regarding the "tweaking" of Bend's noise ordinance Wednesday night at the City Council meeting.

Bend resident Jason Switzer spoke about how frustrated the arts community is with how long the Council is taking to adopt changes to the ordinance that would make a more equitable rule.

"There are two main points simplified from the laundry list we brought to the council previously, that I would again beg you to consider. No.1:  require the use of those expensive decibel readers the city bought anytime there's a complaint involving a business. Your own stats show the calls to a business are an extreme minority, before you cost a whole lot of people involved a whole lot of revenue, you meter make sure they're breaking the ordinance in the first place. And 2: measure from the point of complaint."

Bend Police Chief Jeff Sale says the department has an internal policy to use decibel meters and they always try to reason the problem out with all involved.

Councilor Mark Capell pushed to get it done and see how it works in the short run.

"Let it have some time. Let’s let it get some age behind it to see exactly what is wrong with it. It was better than what we had; but it still needs some tweaking."

The Council decided to pass the revised noise ordinance, with a couple of amendments that would lower the fine for a first offense and that specifically a business would always have a decibel meter reading attached to the complaint after 10 p.m.