Village May Change the Way Fines Are Collected

If village trustees agree next week, the way deals with village code violators will change. And the village will get to keep more of the money those lawbreakers have to pay.

At Tuesday night’s Committee of the Whole meeting, Village Attorney Steve Andersson explained the new idea. Essentially, it will allow Montgomery to cut out the circuit court system when it comes to prosecuting those accused of breaking village ordinances.

Currently, everyone accused of a violation gets a ticket, and can either pay the fine or challenge it in county circuit court. But Andersson said the court usually ends up keeping most of the fine, should the person be found guilty.

Under the new system, two types of tickets would be handed out. The first, the standard ticket, would go to those who want to challenge the accusation. Those people would go through the normal court process, Andersson said. 

But the second type would be a local ticket, and would only go to those who either admit they violated village law, or aren’t certain. When these tickets are paid, Andersson said, the village gets to keep all of the money.

Those receiving the second type of ticket would have 30 days to pay it. Of course, should those on the receiving end want to challenge the accusation, they can, and go through the normal court process, but only if they do so within those 30 days.

What happens next depends on whether the accused person lives in the village of Montgomery.

Non-residents who don’t pay their fine within 30 days will get a court summons, and the matter will move to the circuit court. Residents, however, will simply have the fine added to their water bills, and will have to pay, or risk having their water service shut off.

At that point, Andersson said, they would have given up their right to challenge the accusation. But he noted that the village fines would be lower than those assessed by the court, and again, the village would keep 100 percent of the money.

“Everybody wins, except maybe the circuit clerk’s office,” Andersson said.

Trustees gave their support to the plan Tuesday night, and it will appear on the agenda for next Monday’s Village Board meeting.