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John Swenson From: John Swenson Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2017 4:44 PM To: Jeff Reinert; Bill Kusterman; Rob Rafferty; Michael Manthey; Melissa Maher Cc: Jeff Karlson Subject: Achieving Compliance though Education (ACE) - Suspended Mayor and Members of the City Council Our City Prosecutor Robb Olson was made aware of legislation that was passed during the 2017 Special Sessions that requires that we suspend the City of Lino Lakes Achieving Compliance through Education (ACE) Program. Below is the legislation: M.S.A. § 477A.0175 477A.0175. Aid reductions for operating an unauthorized diversion program Currentness Subdivision 1. Penalty for operating an unauthorized diversion program. Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, a county or city that operated a pretrial diversion program that a court determines was not authorized under section 169.999 or another statute or law must have its aid under sections 477A.011 to 477A.03 reduced by the amount of fees paid by participants into the program for the years in which the program operated. A court shall report any order that enjoins a county or city from operating a pretrial diversion program to the state auditor as required under subdivision 2. The state auditor shall determine the amount of fees collected under the diversion program and notify the commissioner of the amount. The commissioner shall reduce the county program aid paid to a county or the local government aid paid to a city by this amount beginning with the first aid payment made after receiving notice of the reduction amount. No aid payment may be less than zero but the amount of the reduction that cannot be made out of that payment shall be applied to future payments until the total amount has been deducted. Subd. 2. Court challenge to authority to operate a pretrial diversion program. Any taxpayer may challenge a city or county operation of a pretrial diversion program by tiling a declaratory judgment action or seeking other appropriate relief in the district court for the county where the city is located or in any other court of competent jurisdiction. if the court finds that the county or city has exceeded its authority under law in operating the pretrial diversion program, the court must transmit a copy of the court order to the state auditor. Credits Laws 2017, 1st Sp., c. 1, art. 4, § 18, eff. May 31, 2017. M. S. A. § 477A.0175, MN ST § 477A.0175 Current with laws of the 2017 Regular and First Special Sessions. The statutes are subject to change as determined by the Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. (These changes will be incorporated later this year.) After reviewing the legislation, speaking with Mr. Langel and Mr. Olson, consulting with other law enforcement agencies that utilized traffic diversion programs, it was decided that the ACE program must be suspended until a legislative remedy takes place. As articulated in the above legislation the City's state aid would be in jeopardy if the ACE program continues. During the 2016 Legislative Session, Representative Runbeck authored HF1860, which addressed traffic diversions programs but as far as I know that bill did not get a hearing. I will contact Rep. Runbeck about this issue to determine if a legislative effort could take place during the next session to address the matter. 1