Carbondale Reporter

At a recent meeting, the Carbondale Study Circles Neighborhood Action Group heard presentations on the basics of ticketing and fines for city building and neighborhood-services code violations.

Below are the minutes from this meeting, as provided by the group.

The Carbondale Study Circles Neighborhood Action Group meets regularly at City Hall, 200 S. Illinois Ave

Carbondale Study Circles, Neighborhood Action Group—June 1, 2016

Attending: Mary O’Hara, Kathy Benedict, Clara McClure, Sarah Heyer, Stephan Phillips, Mary Campbell, Nefeteria Brewster, Justin Zurlinden, Curran Bishop

1. Announcements –

a. June 5th Keep Carbondale Beautiful Garden Tour, 11 -3 starts at Old Train Station;

b. June 7th ?Coffee with a Cop? at Long Branch Café starting at 7:30 am; alternatives to lawns program

c. June 15th –Volunteers needed for Jackson County Health Department emergency preparedness exercise on SIU-C campus from 11:30-2:30 register at http://massdispensing.eventbrite.com;

d. Workshop on Alternatives to Lawns Saturday July 30 12:30-5:30 at Civic Center

e. County Zoning Survey for Citizens – There is a subcommittee exploring zoning at the county level. The next Zoning Exploration Subcommittee is scheduled for June 21, 2016 at 5pm in Courtroom 3 at the Jackson County Courthouse. If you would like your response included in the subcommittee packet, for the June meeting, I will need to receive your response no later than June 15, 2016 by Noon. Contact for survey: Jennifer Huson at jhuson@jacksoncounty-il.gov by June 30, 2016.

2. Reports—

a. Arbor District—update on Clean-up; Tatum Heights—opening of new basket ball court

b. Tatum Heights neighborhood: Tatum Heights Park will be getting a new, enlarged basketball court. (build into a community event?); 2 houses on Crestview are being auctioned off

c. Water Meeting follow-up Mary O. wrote letter with our questions following the Cities Presentation. The City does not have the answers to these questions, they are considering placing their reporting on the Cedar Lake online. This necessitates community education on how to read this info in a reliable manner. More to come. Action on our questions will be pursued through The upcoming Smithsonian ? Water Resources For Life? which Gayle Klam and Sarah Heyer are working on Community Forum on a Safer Carbondale- Discussion of meeting and summary- Wish to get a report on the meeting in the Carbondale CommuniqueSandy will make contacts

d. Stephan Phillips explained the basics of the ticketing and fines on Code violations. Citizens can google ? Jackson County Judici? to look at partial histories of fines, appeals, outcomes of specific properties. You need the name or corporate name to do the search. This kind of search will not include ?pay by Mail? tickets if the recipient has indeed paid the ticket by Mail. If the recipient of a ticket has not paid within 10 day period, the ticket then goes to Court for a trail date. It was noted that because of Code enforcements philosophy on ticketing, that by time a property gets a ?notice to appear? a fine should be issued by the Court to cover Court costs, as well as other costs incurred by the City. The ?pay by mail ticketing? in note at the discretion of the individual inspector. Because of the nature of some code violations, these must go straight to ?notice to appear ? in Court.

e. Stephan Phillips explained the basics of the ticketing and fines on Building and Neighborhood Services Code violations. Anyone can google ? Jackson County Illinois Judici? to look at information related to any tickets filed at the Jackson County Court House related to fines, appeals, and outcomes of specific cases. You need the individuals name or corporate name to do the search. This kind of search will not include ?pay by Mail? tickets if the defendant has indeed paid the ticket by Mail, thus it would not be filed with the Jackson County Court House. If the recipient of a pay by mail ticket has not paid within 10 days of certified service of the ticket, the ticket then goes to the Jackson County Court House for the appearance date that is written on the ticket. It was noted that Code enforcements policy on ticketing, is that if a ticket is issued then the defendant should be required to pay a penalty(fine) because Code has already had multiple contact points, expending tax payer resources, in an effort to seek voluntary compliance with the code before a ?Notice to Appear? is issued. Fines issued by the Court include court costs in addition to the minimum fine or assessed fine for the ordinance violation. There is a ?pay by mail ticketing? list which specifies ordinance violations that are eligible for the ?pay by mail? option, however depending on the circumstances of the ordinance violation the inspector can issue the ticket as a ?notice to appear in court?, which would add court costs to the fine. Fines only cover a very small percentage of the costs of enforcement.

f. Update on First Time Buyers Education—Next meeting