11-08-2007 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

their application to speeding, stop sign, semaphore or unsafe lane-use infractions with a fine of $40 (significantly less than a Court Citation, if such a ticket were issued. ) 5. How do you limit increased usage where enforcement is subjective? I'm not sure there's a need to impose limitations to prevent increased usage. In Community Development, we always give property owners ample time to correct violations, probably too much time if you ask the neighbor of an offending property. It's never our intent to blanket someone with tickets despite the Code allowing for a ticket to be issued EVERY DAY a violation persists. We seek compliance and use the tickets to help achieve that simple goal when other avenues have proven fruitless. The problem presently with an AO is that the ticket has no "teeth", which by that I mean if the property owner ignores it, we have no recourse but to issue a Ramsey County Court Citation for the offense. A Court Citation naturally is a more serious step and requires the offender to appear in court and potentially pay a fine that greatly exceeds our AO fine. This course of action however is slow, often taking months to schedule the court hearing, all the while the original violation may still persist. Because of this, we've actually skipped the AO process altogether in many cases to help expedite resolution of the violation. Establishing the authority to certify these unpaid AO fines to the offending party's property taxes gives the AO the teeth it needs to resolve violations by creating a disincentive for the property owner to simply ignore the problem. 6. Does a change of this nature require a ballot measure? No. The requested Charter amendments would formailize our authority to issue AOs, a practice we've employed since 1988. Some would suggest that we already have the ability to issue AOs and certify unpaid property-based fines even absent explicit Charter authorization, and if that's the case, then the amendments serve to reinforce this authority. Besides, the community has long been clammoring for tighter enforcement against habitual offenders--the amendments will help to address that by reinforcing our ability to issue tags and assess any unpaid fines. I would think the changes suggested are minor in nature, esp when compared to other recently adopted Charter amendments. 7. Is there language currently in code and where is it? Yes. Chapter 702 establishes the AO process. All we would need to add is the authority to certify unpaid property based fines to the property taxes as a special assessment, in the exact same manner as we do for abatements, diseased tree removals and delinquent utility bills. 8. Do we need a list of specific offenses or is there an existing category to reference? The Code, in Section 104 .01 as well as in Section 702. 02, essentially indicates that ANY violation of ANY section of City Code can result in an AO being issued, so long as there is a penalty articluated therein. Specifically, Section 104 .01 says, "Any person violating an administrative rule shall be subject to the scheduled penalty not to exceed one hundred dollars ($100.00) for each offense. " Section 702.02 indicates that "Offenses that are declared misdemeanors by this Code may be charged as administrative offenses, at the election of the City. . . " Most of the sections of the Code conclude with an enforcement provision which reiterates that any violation of the Code constitutes a misdemeanor. 2