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My apologies to readers
who don’t live in Grantsville. I realize you are all tired of hearing
about Grantsville’s issues, as they don’t affect you. But, even though I
have come to realize I cannot change anything, and that no words of mine
make any difference, I must try, one more time, to see if I can stop the
insanity.
“Now, you
know a beagle is a hard-headed dog,” Brock said to me when I picked out
our new puppy. I nodded, and looked into her little puppy face and could
only think, “how adorable.” Within a few days those words came to mind
again and again.
Daisy is a
smart puppy. She’s loving, cute, funny, and sharp as a tack, but now at
12 weeks, I still can’t get her to go on the paper consistently, and she
chews on everything but her toys.
After
yelling, “Daisy! Go on the paper!” and, “Daisy, you’re chewing on the
wrong thing,” for the millionth time, it occurred to me--Grantsville
politics and my hard-headed beagle have a lot in common.
When I
started this job, we bought a copy of the Grantsville ordinance book. It
cost $20. I thought it meant something. I thought it was a solid
resource for procedures, rules and regulations in the town. I soon
realized that multiple versions of the ordinances were available, none
of them solid or securely maintained.
For more
than three years, I have urged councils and mayors to establish a solid
ordinance book in print. “Go to the paper!” “You need the sanctity of
this paper!” Just like Daisy, sometimes council recognized the
importance of the paper, and sometimes they went where they wanted.
Likewise,
there are issues of great importance, like sewer and water problems,
that council should be chewing on. Instead, we spend time trying to say
who can park where, who can tear down their buildings or build new ones,
and who gets pulled over and given a warning for speeding on their way
to church. Just like Daisy, council often seems to be chewing on issues
that are not the pieces they should be sinking their teeth into.
A beagle is
adorable, intelligent, and lovable, but for sure, it is a hard-headed
dog. Daisy, up until now, has been trained through the processes of
positive reinforcement, just as the dog training book I bought said.
When the written words of wisdom didn’t work, she was recently
introduced to light discipline.
Our council is made up
of good people, friends, neighbors, who have the potential to be leaders
of a community in dire need of leadership. Our community, for the most
part, is the same. For sure, they too are hard-headed, and perhaps in
need of some training.
So, with
nowhere else to go, I returned this week to the meaningless words of the
town ordinances. Just like the dog training book, it is all I have to
find the answers for needed direction--all I have to decipher which is
the right way to go. And just like the training book, sometimes those
words aren’t worth the paper they are written on, but it is all that I
have, and thus, is the only place to go.
Article 4
covers the topic of municipal court. Section 2-17 states, “It shall be
mandatory for the municipality to provide for the creation and
maintenance of a police or municipal court and for the appointment or
election of an officer to be known as police court or municipal court
judge if over five percent of the gross income of the city is derived
from fines collected for the violation of municipal ordinances.” Now, I
don’t have all the numbers in front of me, but I am betting that parking
ticket fines do not bring in five percent of the town’s annual income.
Those who
would quote W.Va. state law §8-10-2 concerning municipal courts
(“Notwithstanding any charter provision to the contrary, any city may
provide by charter provision and any municipality may provide by
ordinance for the creation and maintenance of a municipal court”) are
ignoring two important pieces of that law: “notwithstanding any charter
provision to the contrary” and the word “may.” Grantsville does have a
charter provision to the contrary, and “may” doesn’t mean “must.”
In fact,
section 2-17 of the ordinance book says, “In the absence of any charter
provision or ordinance creating a position of police or municipal court
judge, the mayor shall hear and determine any and all alleged violations
of municipal ordinances.”
So, some
could interpret that Grantsville is not mandated to have a municipal
court, and that the mayor can make a decision on any violations.
If you think
this is an infringement on your right to due process, see Grantsville
ordinance section 2-22 which states, “Every individual charged with a
violation of a municipal ordinance shall have the right to an immediate
trial and disposition of his case in conformity to due process
requirements. This provision does not apply if the municipal court is
not in session, if the municipal judge is unavailable or if the
defendant is not in clear possession of his faculties.”
(By the way,
you don’t have a right to a trial by jury anywhere in the
U.S.
if the punishment for the crime does not involve incarceration.)
So, let’s
recap. Grantsville does not have to have a municipal court if fines from
ordinances total less than five percent of the town’s annual income. The
mayor can hear any arguments of those charged with violating an
ordinance if no municipal judge position has been created by charter or
ordinance. You don’t have a right to a trial by jury if you are charged
with a crime that doesn’t include incarceration in the punishment.
While I’m at
it, let’s talk about the legality of parking meters, covered in section
13-63: “This municipality with respect to streets and highways under
their jurisdiction and within the reasonable exercise of the police
power may: (1) regulate the standing or parking of vehicles.”
Now, I’ve
gone way over my allotted space in the paper, and given myself a
headache just to make my point--which has nothing to do with municipal
courts, judges, rights or parking tickets.
If we had a
solid, respectable ordinance book and a council that was familiar with
it, council members, mayors and recorders could know all the above
already. Those who like to spout law and squeal about their rights would
also know.
And I could
have written this week about something else.
Daisy! Go on
the paper! And chew on the right toys!
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