By Mark Fischenich

Free Press Staff Writer

NORTH MANKATO — For two years North Mankato officials have been waiting for the Legislature to decide if it’s legal for cities to set up their own system of traffic fines and keep the revenue rather than sharing it with the state.

Now it appears the city will implement a system later this year even if a legislative standoff on the issue continues.

“We’re just kind of waiting now to see if they’re going to do something,” Mayor Gary Zellmer said of the Legislature.

In past sessions, bills were introduced to expressly authorize cities to offer traffic violators and certain other low-level offenders the opportunity to pay a less-costly administrative penalty — and waive their right to go through the traditional legal system. Other bills have been introduced to prohibit the practice, with proponents arguing the practice cuts into state revenue and creates uneven justice from city to city.

Neither side has been able to get their bill passed.

“I’m assuming nothing’s going to happen,” Zellmer said. “And if it doesn’t, we’ll move forward.”

That’s a choice other cities — including Mapleton and Waseca — have been making for years despite some indication from the state attorney general that they may be unlawfully exceeding their authority. It’s unknown how many in all have instituted the practice, but the League of Minnesota Cities is pursuing legislation that would make it clearly legal.

In an attempt to find compromise with lawmakers and interest groups seeking to completely prohibit the practice, the bill restricts local administrative penalties to certain offenses and sets up a uniform process and penalty for all cities, said Anne Finn, a lobbyist for the League.

“That’s what we’re trying to hone in on and that’s why it’s taken some time,” Finn said.

Among the compromises, the bill supported by the League would restrict administrative penalties to speeding offenses of less than 10 mph over the limit, to equipment violations such as loud mufflers and malfunctioning lights, and to failure to stop at a stop line.

Officers already have the discretion to go straight to a state fine if they feel it’s warranted, and offenders have the option of refusing an administrative penalty in favor of the state fine. (Typically, offenders prefer the local fine because it isn’t reported to their insurance company and it can be as much as $50 less expensive.)

Finn is hopeful that middle ground has finally been located at the Capitol, noting the Minneapolis and St. Paul police unions are supportive of the bill.

“We also think we have a better bill than we’ve ever had,” she said.

But there’s still plenty of skepticism, including from Lake Crystal Police Chief and state Rep. Tony Cornish, who has sponsored bills in the past to prohibit cities and counties from setting up their own system of traffic fines.

Rep. Larry Hosch, DFL-St. Joseph, is getting closer to an acceptable compromise, Cornish said.

Still, the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association is still overwhelmingly opposed.

And passage of Hosch’s bill could bring a flood of cities and counties instituting administrative penalty programs, which would reduce revenue coming to the state through fines and steep surcharges the state has attached to fines in recent years. That’s likely to be a concern when the state is already struggling to fill a $4.6 billion budget shortfall.

“It creates a huge hole in the state budget without that revenue coming in,” Cornish said.

Finn, though, wonders if the revenue impact is exaggerated. There’s some evidence from cities already using administrative penalties that officers — reluctant to hit a minor offender with a state fine/fee penalty that now tops $120 — primarily use the less expensive administrative penalty as an alternative to warning a driver.

Keeping traffic offenses out of the court system would also reduce costs for an already overburdened court system, Finn said.

Whatever happens in the Legislature — short of legislation passing that bans administrative penalties — North Mankato appears ready to finally get going.

Police Chief Chris Boyer is supportive of the idea, saying it would give his officers another tool to use in enforcing traffic laws and other violations.

It would also mean a new revenue source for a city scouring its budget in the face of deep reductions in state aid.

“We’re not going to get rich on it,” Zellmer said. “But it might help us offset some of the costs.”