Municipal Court Reform Bill Fails In Senate Vote

A bill to modify provisions of a bill that made sweeping reforms to the Missouri municipal court system in 2015 failed Tuesday on a bipartisan vote.

Missouri SB 553, sponsored by Sen. Bob Dixon, R-Springfield, would have made major changes to SB 5. SB 5 was sponsored by former Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Glendale, who is now the state treasurer.

The bill was a reaction to the August 2014 protests in Ferguson. The bill limited the percentage of revenue a city could generate through fines, banned failure to appear charges for missing court dates and prohibited debtors’ prisons — jail for minor traffic fines. The amount of revenue a city could generate from fines was lowered from 35 percent to 20 percent.

Schmitt called Missouri’s system “taxation by citation” since many municipalities were ticketing motorists to fund budgets.

Dixon’s bill would have repealed:

-A provision prohibiting a municipal judge from serving in that capacity in more than five municipalities;

-Removing monetary limits on fines; and

-Failure to appear charges.

Dixon’s bill was voted down by 17 nays to 13 yeas. Three senators — including Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan, were absent. Sen. Dan Brown, R-Rolla, was one of the yeas. Brown’s 16th district covers Crawford County. 

Brown did not respond to the Independent News’ request for an interview.

Bourbon Court

The bill is relevant to the abolished Bourbon Municipal Court.

The court was eliminated in early 2017 following the resignation of Judge Don Peterson and Mayor Danny Skaggs proposing that the board abolish it.

Paul Satterfield, still new to his job as the city’s police chief, said he did not believe police departments should serve as “revenue arms.”

More than a year before SB 5, the city was blasted in a state audit by the late Tom Schweich. Schweich’s audit found the city was not accurately assessing “whether it owes excess revenues from traffic tickets to the states.” A review found the city owed between $34,718 and $59,155 to the Department of Revenue during a two-year period ending in 2013.

Then-Police Chief Mike Pennock quit shortly after the audit was released. The department was scaled down to a part-time staff and the highway program was finally shuttered.

In April 2016, city of Bourbon voters passed a sales tax that was included in SB 5 reforms that allowed municipalities to collect money to fund public safety.