St. Paul Charter Commission accepts administrative fines

A proposal to give the city’s elected leadership broad latitude to create non-criminal penalties for rule breakers is on its way to the St. Louis City Council. Paul.

For nearly two and a half hours, the 15 members of the City Charter Commission of St. Paul sat in the basement of downtown City Hall Thursday afternoon, going over a number of scenarios as they debated whether to support amending the city charter. to allow the city council to enforce administrative subpoenasor civil fines for violating the ordinance.

One residential tenant described being hit with a rent increase of more than 7 percent by a landlord who laughed in his face when he mentioned the city’s rent control ordinance, which is intended to limit rent increases to 3 percent.

Angie Wiese, director of the city’s Department of Safety and Inspections, shared images of a city residence where trash bags have been spilling out of dumpsters since at least October.

Director of public works in St. Paul, Sean Kershaw, described situations where telcos open up sidewalks in poor neighborhoods to do underground work, but leave them unsealed for weeks with no immediate consequence because they drag their heels.

Each instance, officials said, could be addressed more quickly by a civil citation than by criminal charges or license revocation.

Convinced, the charter commission opted to counter recent history – the proposal it has failed twice before since 2017 — and voted 12-3 to approve the recommendation. The charter amendment now goes to the city council, where it needs unanimous approval to pass.

The mayor of St. Paul Melvin Carter and a majority of the council have argued on record for giving the board broad discretion in determining which ordinances to amend to allow for civil citations for violators. Each ordinance will go through a separate three-reading hearing process, giving the public a chance to weigh in.

Opponents worry about overruns, revenue streams

Department executives on Thursday shared a list of about 15 areas where administrative citations could be used instead of slow-moving criminal charges or heavy-handed license revocations, from dog bites to rent control violations and illegal dumping in rain and sanitary sewers.

Three members of the charter commission said they remained unconvinced.

Maisue Thao, who voted no, said the examples shared by department directors are clearly areas where administrative citations could help, but giving city inspectors more authority to fine residents and business owners could be exceeded. She said she wanted more details about the fines program and the appeals process.

Cosandra Lloyd said the board should decouple citation revenue from the issuing department. That way, for example, a Department of Safety and Inspections inspector couldn’t help balance the DSI budget by fining homeowners for trivial infractions like chipped paint, which is common in many of the city’s century-old properties.

“I’m concerned about this becoming a revenue stream for the city,” Lloyd said after voting against the proposed amendment. “Any funds collected should go into an action fund that can be used for any person who is subpoenaed but cannot afford to comply.”

Commissioner Debbie Montgomery also voted against the proposal.

Supporters say the goal is compliance

Beth Commers, acting director of the city’s Department of Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity, emphasized that the goal is to enforce city ordinances and not penalize regular homeowners.

For minor ordinance violations, she said, the city generally starts with outreach and education before escalating to harsher penalties.

“Each of the state’s top 25 cities (by population) except St. Paul, has the power to issue administrative subpoenas,” Commers said, noting precedent in which police in St. Paul already has the authority to issue parking fines. . “We’re not asking for something completely new.”

Peter Butler, a former city financial analyst, said Thursday night that a group of residents will petition to have the administrative citation amendment placed on the 2025 ballot if approved by the council. “We only need to collect 2,000 signatures for this,” Butler said in an email. “This proposal is entirely staff-driven, and residents should decide whether the city has this new enforcement power. How many residents are asking for this change?”