City courts new adjudication system
By Nelson Daily Editor
By Timothy Schafer, The Nelson Daily
City-appointed ‘judges,’ instead of the Provincial court system, could soon handle disputes over City bylaws.
The bylaw dispute adjudication system is now in draft form and could be landing on the table of City council in the next few weeks, says the City manager.
Kevin Cormack confirmed document research and compilation is done and the next step will be to bring the paper forward to council for discussion and recommendation, he said.
The adjudication system would replace the provincial court as the venue for resolving disputes of minor municipal bylaw violations in areas such as animal control, business licence, zoning, signs, parking, building code, noise and fire prevention.
If the adjudication bylaw is the legislation council needed to move forward with all of the other bylaw reform they are considering, Coun. Kim Charlesworth said it should be first priority.
“That’s okay, it’s already done,” said Cormack, and only awaits council’s approval.
The Local Government Act provides city council with the authority to institute an adjudication system. Council had authorized City staff to pursue a bylaw dispute adjudication system for the city, and write the Court Services Branch of the Ministry of the Attorney General to advise on the system.
The City will have to develop specific bylaws and their infractions to be enforced under the system, the amount of the fines and fees, guides for people charged with tickets, tracking and payment process for tickets and an adjudication process.
The cost and the staffing necessary for the new process will also have to be determined. Cormack said the cost of operating the new system will likely be offset by the fines collected and will not necessarily result in additional operating costs for the City.
They’ve got the power
Legislation for the adjudication system was developed by the Province in response to concerns and issues raised over the previous 15 years by municipal groups calling for reforms to bylaw enforcement.
The legislation addressed concerns relating to the costly, time-consuming and complex nature of previously available enforcement tools.
After a successful pilot project in 2004, the Attorney General decided to expand the authority for use of the adjudication system to interested governments across the province.
The pilot project found the number of parking tickets disputed dropped by 94 per cent, the length of time for a ticket dispute to be heard and decided went down by 10 per cent, and there was an 81 per cent increase in collection of outstanding fines.
