Legislature(2013 - 2014)CAPITOL 106
03/27/2014 08:00 AM House STATE AFFAIRS
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HB293 | |
| SB116 | |
| HB216 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | HB 293 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | HB 270 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | SB 116 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | HB 216 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
SB 116-SERVICE OF CITATIONS
8:55:35 AM
CHAIR LYNN announced that the next order of business was CS FOR
SENATE BILL NO. 116(STA), "An Act relating to service of
citations; amending Rule 3(f), Alaska Rules of Minor Offense
Procedure; repealing Rule 3(g), Alaska Rules of Minor Offense
Procedure; and providing for an effective date."
8:55:52 AM
SENATOR DENNIS EGAN, Alaska State Legislature, as prime sponsor,
introduced SB 116. He stated that the proposed legislation
would correct the unintended consequence of a good bill passed
in 2010, which stopped law enforcement from leaving a ticket
under the windshield wiper of a vehicle. He stated, "To keep
enforcing local laws, many municipalities went to civil
violations for just a minor offense, and that has its own
problems - it wasn't available to state law enforcement at all."
Under SB 116, law enforcement could leave a parking ticket under
a person's windshield wiper, thereby no longer having to write a
citation with the person receiving the citation present. In
response to Chair Lynn, he clarified that currently, the police
officer has to issue the citation directly to the person. He
said, for example, that if someone was parking in a loading
zone, the police would have to stay there and issue the
violation in person.
CHAIR LYNN commented, "Meanwhile an assault is going on
someplace and they're waiting for a parking ticket."
SENATOR EGAN said that's correct.
8:57:42 AM
JESSE KIEHL, Staff, Senator Dennis Egan, Alaska State
Legislature, stated that many municipalities took their minor
offenses out of the realm of the lowest possible criminal
offense and made them civil violations, which allowed police to
leave a ticket under the windshield wiper of a car. However, he
explained the effect of that was that if a citizen believes it
was an unjust ticket, he/she does not get to see a judge or
magistrate, but instead must "fight city hall." He said many
Alaskans are concerned about the civil violation process, which
is more costly for municipalities and difficult for them to
enforce when someone occasionally just throws out the ticket.
He said the civil violation route is not available to Alaska
State Troopers, so they do not write many parking tickets, but
do write several tickets at the Palmer state fair when people
block access lanes, driveways, or fire zones, for example. He
said, "And that becomes a very difficult thing under the law as
it reads today, because the legislature has never delegated to
the Department of Public Safety any authority to make offenses
civil violations, and probably appropriately so." The proposed
legislation would fix that problem and allow an Alaska State
Trooper to leave a ticket under the windshield wiper.
CHAIR LYNN asked what happens when a ticket blows off a vehicle
in a strong wind and is lost.
MR. KIEHL answered that under SB 116, the ticket would then go
into a default process after the time in which to contest the
ticket had passed and the ticket had not been paid. He said the
state court clerk would send a default letter to the owner of
the registered vehicle, and the person with the violation would
be given a certain amount of time to pay the ticket, after which
if the ticket was still not paid, then the state would garnish
that money from the person's permanent fund dividend (PFD).
9:00:39 AM
SCOTT BLOOM, City Attorney, City of Kenai, testified in support
of SB 116. He listed three reasons that the issues addressed
under SB 116 would be important to the City of Kenai. The first
reason was public safety. He explained that on peak days in
July, the city commonly has 10,000-12,000 visitors; on its
busiest day last year there were an estimated 15,000 visitors to
the community. The local and residential streets are inundated.
He said as word gets out that the city cannot issue parking
citations, people tend to ignore restrictions and block fire
lanes, driveways, and emergency access. He said being able to
force driving regulations without requiring personal service
would alleviate a large portion of the problem.
MR. BLOOM stated that second reason he was asking for support of
SB 116 was because the enforcement of parking under current law
strains the City of Kenai's municipal resources greatly.
Without the ability to leave parking tickets, the city's limited
police force must try either to track down drivers, boot the
vehicle, or tow them, all of which takes time and manpower. He
relayed that in 2013, during the month of July, the City of
Kenai issued approximately 106 citations; in 2014, since the
current law was in place, the city issued only 12. As a
relatively small municipality, it is difficult to set up an
alternative administrative system to issue citations. Unlike
Anchorage or Fairbanks, which have the economics to support a
separate parking authority, this is not a practical solution for
the City of Kenai.
MR. BLOOM said the third reason he was asking the committee to
support SB 116, was that he believed it would reduce the cost to
both the city and the public. He explained that if the city
must provide an administrative process, it would cost the city
time and money, and that cost would be passed on to the public
through increased citation amounts. Further, he said the
alternative of immobilizing vehicles or towing them is
exponentially more expensive and burdensome on all parties. Mr.
Bloom offered to answer questions.
9:04:22 AM
CHAIR LYNN, after ascertaining that there was no one else who
wished to testify, closed public testimony.
9:04:30 AM
REPRESENTATIVE KELLER moved to report CSSB 116(STA) out of
committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying
fiscal notes. There being no objection, CSSB 116(STA) was
reported out of the House State Affairs Standing Committee.