City commissioners consider raising court costs
By Joey Berlin
Originally published 02:06 p.m., May 1, 2008
Updated 02:06 p.m., May 1, 2008
The city commission looked at the possibility Wednesday of raising the city’s court costs to help the police department raise money for a new electronic ticketing system.
Police Chief Gary Smith told the commission at its work session that there had always been an inherent problem with policemen writing their tickets legibly, particularly when they’re writing in the dark.
“An electronic ticket-writing program solves most of those problems fully in that it actually prints the document right there in the car,” Smith said, “so it (is) easier for our staff to read and court staff to read, but also the person we gave the citation to, so they can make out the writing, so it’s clearly understood.”
Smith said such a system can also differentiate between types of offenses that need a signature from the person being cited and those that do not, and can differentiate between a city offense and county offense. It also makes for faster processing of offenses.
The police department is proposing that a $10 service fee be added to the court costs for the $73,000 ticket-writing system. The department estimates that it will take 18 to 24 months until enough funds are collected to begin purchasing the software and hardware for the new system.
Director of Court Services Phil Martin presented numbers showing that Emporia is behind most other comparable Kansas cities in court fees collected. The city currently collects $55 on traffic offenses and $60 on other offenses, with $19.50 out of those amounts going to the state. Cities listed in a table for comparison purposes included Arkansas City ($70 traffic, $70 other offenses), Garden City ($50, $70) and Hutchinson ($65, $65).
Commissioner Jeff Longbine asked Smith if he envisioned the electronic system reducing or increasing the average time for a traffic stop. Smith said that in theory, it should decrease the time.
With a $10 increase in court cost fees for each qualifying case, the city would have collected about $29,000 in additional revenue in 2007, Martin calculated.
In other activity Wednesday, commissioners:
F Listened to an update from City Manager Matt Zimmerman and Director of Administrative Services Larry Bucklinger on the status of the city’s insurance fund after the first quarter of the year. The city’s insurance situation has been a source of ongoing discussion after a large number of claims in the previous two years. The thrust of the latest report was that the city isn’t collecting enough money in premiums, and if the current trends continued, the balance of the fund will be exhausted.
F Looked at the first draft of the city’s “small fund” budgets, such as the library fund, the special park fund and the industrial development sales tax fund.
F Examined changes proposed by Zimmerman in a new draft of the city’s job organization chart. Some of the major changes included placing the city’s new horticulturist under the supervision of the new parks director, instead of the parks supervisor, and holding off on hiring the city’s new housing inspector for now. Zimmerman said the housing inspector position would be kept on the organization chart for future years but wouldn’t be funded right now.
Comments
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Posted by spectator (anonymous) on May 1, 2008 at 4:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Hang on, city employees, here comes the proposed $700.00 / month family plan premiums along with the $2,500.00 / year deductible.
Posted by justaflushaway (anonymous) on May 1, 2008 at 9 p.m. (Suggest removal)
hey smith, you said they write the tickets in the dark??? then you say they go to the car to do the ticket???, for 73,000 dollars could you not install ANOTHER DOME LIGHT and teach the cops to PRINT?????????? nothing wrong with raising the costs, but why spend the money when you don't need to, especially on something like what you want here, Save some money, we cant afford to pay the taxes we have, why do you not want to at least have some common sense and help us who are making over 100 thousand a year like you and zimmerman
The Kansas Highway Patrol still writes out their tickets and It doesn't take then long to do it, maybe another minute for the officer to print correctly would not hurt anything, its not like they are that busy when they are patrolling the streets ,,, yea yea, cry me a damn river on how overworked they are
Posted by admireed (anonymous) on May 1, 2008 at 9:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)
waste of money
Posted by flexj66801 (anonymous) on May 1, 2008 at 9:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)
spectator, I agree with you.
The city employees are getting taken for a ride. As soon as I heard that the benefits (insurance, vacation, sick time) were being looked at I knew that meant something was getting cut or costs will be raised. Isn't it ironic that the implementing of the wage scale gets pushed back, And all the sudden the benefits package needs attention?! I smell something fishy...
Posted by justthefacts (anonymous) on May 1, 2008 at 10:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Sounds like you are already in the business and know everything about it. Good luck.
Posted by justthefacts (anonymous) on May 3, 2008 at 11:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I did some checking with the cops and they tell me one of the most dangerous times they are at risk is stopped on a traffic stop especially at night in their car with the interior light on writing a ticket. It makes them a sitting target. I sure wonder why everyone around here is so down on the cops. Reminds me of that old saying "some people find fault in everything like there is a reward for it." before you are sit in your armchair quarterback chairs why don't you go walk a mile in their shoes. I suspect most of you wouldn't want to do it for any price. Oh and by the way I also checked and the only city administrator who makes over 100k is the city manager. You folks need to get your facts right.
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