La Grange and La Grange Park created a local court to handle ordinance violations, aiming to retain fines and streamline enforcement.
October 2, 2024
La Grange and La Grange Park created a local court to handle ordinance violations, aiming to retain fines and streamline enforcement.
Under the Illinois law, each municipality, including La Grange and La Grange Park, has the authority to establish and enforce its own ordinances. However, violations of these local ordinances, along with those from other towns in Cook County, are typically handled by the Cook County Circuit Court.
If a person violates a local ordinance, the monetary penalties for such violations must be paid into the municipality treasury, according to section 5/1-2-8 of the Illinois Municipal Code. However, the reality is that by the time the issues are resolved, any fines from these violations that the municipalities could have added to their coffers have all but evaporated due to the high cost involved with making their way through the county court system. For this reason, minor infractions like parking tickets often do not get written up.
To avoid the unnecessary complications involved with this system and to reap more benefits for their communities, La Grange and La Grange Park have joined forces to create their own more streamlined version of a municipal court by hiring a local administrative hearing officer to oversee this process. The Village Board of La Grange voted unanimously to approve this administrative court scheme. The court would be civil rather than criminal; by law, it cannot handle moving violations such as speeding.
Though residents and others may not love the sound of either Village being more willing to issue more tickets for minor ordinance violations, the ability to avoid the rigamarole of the Cook County Court system may ease some of those concerns. The knowledge that the money from fines goes directly back into the local municipality rather than being chipped away on a larger scale through the county may also reduce some opposition.
The positive effects may include greater enforcement, hopefully reducing violations overall, and an increase in local treasury funds, which may then benefit the community.
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