Some violations can now be settled in Carpentersville
Instead of schlepping all the way down to Geneva, those violating laws in Carpentersville soon will be able to settle certain violations right in town.
The village has established an administrative adjudication system that begins hearing cases in August. The hearing officer will start out with parking tickets, impounds and vehicle sticker violations that occurred July 1 and after. People who receive citations related to those issues can contest them in adjudication court.
Keeping the cases in-house saves time and money for village staff and local violators who'd otherwise appear in the Geneva circuit courtrooms on the same offenses. It also frees up circuit court judges' time, allowing them to deal with more pressing matters. Impound cases were being handled in Carpentersville as they came up.
“We're not cutting into the county's business,” Village Manager J. Mark Rooney said. “We're just trying to make it more convenient for local ordinance violations.”
Since August, Carpentersville has been working to overhaul its existing parking and ordinance violation process.
The most recent steps include creating an amnesty period for those with outstanding ticket debt, passing an ordinance that lets the village put the Denver Boot on vehicles that belong to ticket scofflaws, establishing the adjudication system and increasing fines associated with certain traffic and ordinance violations. The goal is to sustain the program with increased fine compliance.
Handling these smaller cases in-house lets the village keep all of the money it collects from violators, instead of sharing it with an outside party.
The only cost to the village is hiring the hearing officer, as authorities are not bringing on new clerical staff and will use existing employees to prepare paperwork for the hearings, said Ed Dennis, project coordinator for police Chief Dave Neumann. The village has not yet finalized the hearing officer's fee.
Hearings are scheduled to occur the third Wednesday of every month.
In the fall, the village may add code enforcement and building code violations to the docket. Some of those cases currently are heard at branch court or, if someone wants a jury trial, they go to the Kane County Circuit Court in Geneva.
Fire code violations and lower-level misdemeanor cases could follow as well.
Moving violations will continue to be heard at the branch courts in Carpentersville and Elgin. DUIs still will go to the circuit court.