ATC tables request made by ticketed resident
During the final 2023 meeting of the argos Town council, the council heard another request from a citizen regarding a ticket he was issued in 2022.
The unpaid ticket was turned over to the county courts and a case was filed on Oct. 6, 2023, but the was written on July 30, 2022.
“This ticket was for animal waste, if I’m not mistaken, it was on the sidewalk up by the bank,” said council President charles Randy Snead.
“I don’t know nothing about it, I never got no ticket through the mail,” replied the citizen. “Nobody sent me anything until I got it through Marshall county. all that’s been a year and a half ago.”
clerk-treasurer Lisa Mullaney told the council that she believed that the ticket was issued due to a complaint. “There was a picture with it.”
Town attorney Derek Jones looked at the ticket and said that he remembered it. “This is pretty standard in terms of tickets get paid or get filed, and I take care of those that get turned over to me. The one thing that I do remember about this,” Jones said. “There was a photograph taken of this person, and a dog pooping on the sidewalk.”
The citizen contended that he never received anything through the mail other than what he received from the Marshall county courts.
The citizen requested that his ticket be “forgiven” similar to another citizen that appeared before the argos Town council on Dec. 6. That instance, the citizen received tickets regarding her trash can and lawn maintenance. The total of those four tickets amounted to $350, but the council ended up reducing the total to $150. The council reminded the citizens of that.
“and guys, just so you know, there’s a filing fee once we get to this point and the ticket’s not been paid. It’s like $115 on top of the cost of the ticket. Even if you waive attorney fees, which we traditionally get if we have to push it through. I’m just saying, the town’s going to have to eat that $115 on top of the cost of the ticket which was $50,” said Jones.
The resident stated that if he had received it earlier, he would have paid the initial $50.
council Vice President Shawn Harley wanted to see the picture again. Snead replied that the council had seen the photo. “We saw the picture. The picture was actually brought to us, and I know Derek saw it.”
Harley asked Snead if the resident and the dog were in the photo, Snead confirmed that they were.
after additional dis
cussion, Harley made a motion to table the request until the next meeting so that the council could study the photograph, hear more information from the attorney, and hear from the ticketing officer. The motion was unanimously approved.
The citizen stated that he would be “willing” to pay the $50, but not the additional court fees.
After that matter, another citizen thanked the town for getting a sign installed at the intersection of Dewey and Michigan Streets. He also thanked the town for it’s speediness in filling in a pot hole near the Garden Court entrance.
“We need some type of policy on these ordinance tickets,” said Argos Economic Development Director Mark Vanderweele. “Either we need to send a letter after two weeks then or something.”
The council agreed that there needs to be a system in place for addressing older tickets that haven’t been paid. There was a suggestion regarding sending certified letters to the addresses on the ticket. Mullaney informed the council that it costs the town about $8 to send a certified letter.
“First, I would trust that the officers get the ticket to the address that’s on the ticket. When he verifies that’s his address, I trust that ticket was delivered. I agree that there’s no reason the town’s going to be sending certified letters. You don’t have to do that to be able to file anything with the courts. We do pick a handful of these from time to time, and then we do move forward with them,” said Jones.
Jones went on to say that when people have issues with the tickets, those people come in front of the council to appeal to them, as seen during that meeting. “I’m going to say 99 percent of the time, officers are doing a good job, they’re writing a good ticket, and it’s getting delivered to the address where these folks live and it’s simply not getting paid.”
Mullaney reminded the council that there are going to be executive sessions coming up that include code enforcement. “I think, in that, you should come up with a way that this is handled. Because you are the deciding board. If you don’t want to be the deciding board on these tickets, then you need to set up some sort of a board that it’s going to hear these tickets once every 45 days or whatever. There has to be a way for these people to bring it to somebody and try to get it, and that could be done in the new year.”