City Council Minutes 2019 06 04 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Meeting Minutes June 4 2019 Page 8 of 16 sentence without that hanging over their head She noted some communities have decriminalized most everything and it can be a problem as there is no incentive for someone to complete a sentence Judge Wheeler suggested either keeping the 364 day or perhaps consider 180 days The benefit of a charge in Municipal Court is that we are for low level, first-time offenders and we have the unique opportunity to divert people from the criminal justice system and keep them from repeating offenses Having this tool is useful, we cannot serve in this role without having some consequences we can impose Judge Wheeler noted the court is not in the business of trying to scare people into completing their sentences, that is not the goal However, this is a valuable incentive to get people to follow through It is a way to send the message that this is a big deal and people need to address this Councilmember Stolzmann stated she has read of situations where judges take a different approach and impose severe sentences in municipal courts. She noted this does not happen in our court, but it has happened elsewhere Our ordinances should be written so we get the best result regardless of who our judge and prosecutor are Wheeler stated there have been some bad apples, but the municipal judges' organization gets it and works hard to be fair in their sentencing and to bring up the level of judging if it is found issues are happening Many of the new laws meant to address this have really impeded our ability to do justice Councilmember Loo stated what we have so far has worked well for us and if we have bad actors in these positions we have the ability to get rid of them and will do so Public Comments — None Public Comments Again — None Councilmember Loo moved to approve the ordinance as proposed, Councilmember Leh seconded the motion Councilmember Stolzmann offered a substitute motion to approve the ordinance with a change in section one to read 89 days rather than 364 days The motion died for lack of a second Councilmember Leh stated it is important to bear in mind that we have serious offences that need to be addressed It is not likely jail time will be imposed but it is important to have it. The discretion given the judge to impose penalties is important. It is on us to hire the right people for the job and to get rid of them if needed He appreciates what Ms Cribari said about the role of our court to address issues and help people to not have a record when it is over