At last Tuesday’s Mayor & Council meeting, we voted on an ordinance to increase the maximum fine for municipal infractions and certain misdemeanors from $1,000 to $5,000. It ended up being a unanimous vote to pass the ordinance, but I had some concerns at first about how the change would play out in the code violation chapter (Chapter 10) of Brunswick’s Code of Ordinances. So, I’ll explain what those concerns were and how the Council is working with City Hall to address them.
First, there was a need to raise the maximum fine. For years, state law had kept it fixed at $1,000. That was enough to convince most people to stay on the right side of the law for most things. (Who’s going to pay $1,000 not to mow their lawn? More people than you might think, but not most people.) For some things, though, it wasn’t enough. Some property owners might find it cheaper to pay a $1,000 fine than to repair an unsafe building, for instance. Leaving those things to fester creates issues for the neighborhood. So, when the state legislature raised the allowable maximum to $5,000 this year, there was a convincing reason to take them up on it.
What gave me pause was that some things related to fines are not clear in the code. For example, would $5,000 be a cumulative maximum or the max for a single citation? How do we distinguish repeat offenses from separate offenses? What max fines apply for the third, fourth, or fifth commission of an offense? Could some misdemeanors—which are more serious offenses, including things like killing or maiming the police dog—end up with smaller maximum fines than low-level municipal infractions like failing to properly display a business license?
City policies address several of those questions, but policies can change pretty freely based on who holds City offices at any given time and what they’re thinking at the moment. The code is designed to be more constant. I believe the underlying code should provide clear guidelines for administrative policies, while giving City Hall some room to adapt to different circumstances. And I think it is important for people to be able to read the laws and get a basic understanding of the penalties for breaking them. So, I was reluctant to hike the amount someone could be on the hook for without also putting some effort into making the code clear on how the penalties apply.
Fortunately, some candid back-and-forth done in good faith can still achieve positive results at the local level. City Hall is working with the Council to clarify Chapter 10 of the code. We have already taken one concrete and important step: The Planning Department brought forward a draft ordinance (to be formally introduced at the next Mayor & Council meeting) which adds a sentence to a key section of the code to clarify that $5,000 is the cumulative maximum for continued commissions of a municipal infraction. This change—presuming it passes—will provide a clearer basis for the City policy that goes into effect today. Under that policy, someone would have to fail to correct their violation for a month and a half (48 days, precisely) before their citations combined would total $5,000. I think that’s very fair.
We’re also going to take a big-picture look at Chapter 10 to clarify it further where possible and to consider whether we have all of our listed (“enumerated”) offenses in the right penalty class for their severity. This sort of review will take time and some legal consultation, so we’ll be working on it over the next several months. When we’re done, I think we’ll have a clearer body of local law for code violations that’s both equal to the task of dealing with real-world problems and also able to be read and better understood. I’ll report back once we do.
To see the ordinance we passed and the City’s code infraction fine policy (effective Oct. 1st), see pages 2-5 in the Sept. 23 Mayor & Council packet.