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St. Charles may send message with steep alcohol fine increases

Fighting in, urinating on or becoming disruptively intoxicated in St. Charles may soon result in penalties above and beyond any other area municipality.

Police officials proposed more than doubling existing fines for those crimes Monday night in an effort to send a message to the patrons of city taverns.

"We want to set the tone, and sometimes it starts with correcting behavior," said police Chief James Keegan to city liquor commissioners.

Keegan believes money talks when it comes to behavior correction. He proposed a minimum fine of $250 for every alcohol-related offense in the city.

The current minimum fine for most of those crimes stands at $100.

Keegan said the increase would make the fines the most severe in any neighboring community.

"It's our primary goal to make our community a destination point for residents, visitors and business owners alike," Keegan said. "We want to be firm but fair in our resolve in not only codifying our ordinances but enforcing them."

In practice, the fines may be even more steep. For example, two of the increases proposed relate to public intoxication and public urination, two ordinance violations that are often paired together on the city's police blotter.

Instead of a $200 minimum combined fine for those crimes, a violator would face a $500 minimum fine.

The maximum fine for repeated offenses will remain unchanged at $750 per offense, but Keegan suggested officials will be less hesitant to apply the maximum fine in the future.

That could turn the penalty for someone caught urinating in public while intoxicated into a $1,500 dent to the pocketbook.

"If you're cited once, and you're caught doing this, I sure hope it makes you think twice before you open your zipper and try to do it again," Keegan said.

"If people start seeing the fine is at a certain level, I think it will start to curb the behavior."

Mayor Ray Rogina, who serves as the city's chief liquor commissioner, spoke in favor of the suggested penalties.

He said tavern owners have complained city officials have been severe in punishing them for liquor license violations while unruly drunks have gotten off comparatively easy.

These fines would rectify that disparity, Rogina said.

The city council may vote to increase the fines per Keegan's recommendations as soon as next month.

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