My impressions of the Municipal Court Meeting: The City crew is pretty cool...

Update: I received an email from Judge Solomon about last Friday's meeting, and he wanted to clarify a few things in my summary. Read on for his statement about showing up to court on time and the court cost portions of the fines:

I looked over Jason's blog and don't have any major grievances with what he has asserted, but would stress that it's always better not to let a case go to warrant if at all possible.(the section about the court costs is not exactly legally correct concerning disposition of the court costs, but the amounts cannot be modified by the court) Appearing when required will save everyone time and money, and the possibility of incarceration.

Thanks for keeping me honest, Judge Solomon! Definitely don't want anyone to think it's ok to skip court dates and it be ok with the law.

First off THANK YOU to everybody involved in organizing this meeting. All the people we talked to were reasonable and level-headed, and the two major city representatives were cyclists as well. Talk about representation!

To begin with, on the cycling citizenry side of the table we had Lane Wimberley (Street Smarts Task Force subcommittee chair, commuter cyclist and longtime advocate), Fred Meredith (Editor of Southwest Cycling News, longtime advocate, commuter cyclist and early Critical Mass ticket-receiver), Sarah Krause (SSTF Chair, racer, longtime advocate, writer for A2W), Daniel Norton (TexBIKE Tweeter/Facebooker, nonadvocacy organization), Tom Wald (UT Orange Bike coordinator, BAC member, longtime advocate and commuter cyclist) and myself.

On the city side, we spoke primarily with Judge Mitchell Solomon (judge for the City of Austin Municipal Court, and commuter cyclist), Sergeant Dave Walker (motorcycle cop, recreational rider), and Lee Davila (APD Constituent Liaison, aka. our best avenue into the APD). We were also briefly joined be Judge Evelyn McKee (presiding judge of the CoA Municipal Court, and top dog as far as your ass getting busted goes) but I'm sure she had real business to attend to, so she only hung with us stinky bikers briefly. She's the one who actually sets the local fines, being at the top of the municipal court pyramid. These guys are the real pros, and it was cool to talk to some city people who can actually directly address our concerns.

About a week ago Lee let me know about this meeting, and forwarded me a couple documents prepared by Judge Solomon, highlighting the top 25 (or 18 in the case of bikes, as that's all the specific tickets there are) ticket categories, the number of tickets, the fine amount and the court fees. The $68 fees denote City Ordinance fines, which actually go to the city court. The $101 fees mean it's a state law, and the money goes up to the Great State of Texas; Austin doesn't see a dime of it. For your reading pleasure, here those documents are:

http://www.atxbs.com/s/MunicipalCourt/top25bicycle.xls

http://www.atxbs.com/s/MunicipalCourt/top25trafficplusadditions.xls

I'd requested a few additional ticket fines from Lee which the Judge provided in the form of handwritten notes on the meeting printout, which accounts for the half dozen "additions" on the traffic ticket list above. I asked for this so that I could get a complete list of the "similar" offenses on the motorized traffic side of the picture.

The discussion during the meeting rambled over a fair number of topics, including the current ticket prices, the possibility of lessening the ticket fines, Critical Mass yesterday and today (the officer there participated in the first big Critical Mass crackdowns in the 90's, and Fred Meredith rode in the rides), cyclists and lights in the downtown area, the non-existence of a police crackdown (if there's anyone cracking down it's the individual officers themselves, not a global mandate), the full moon cruises, some hairy letter about a Midnight Ridazz ride that made the Southwest Cycling News, and whether or not it's legal to circumvent a traffic control device by riding the shoulder and completely avoiding the stop line. I'm going to leave you under suspense for that last one, as I'm sure the judge and the cop don't want me to post the discussion on the matter. If you do it just be careful, and look out for the 5-0.

One thing that was made abundantly clear was that we cannot change the court fees under any circumstances. Unless we're completely indigent (which a judgement call by the judge, based on whatever formula they see fit), we owe the fees unless we're found not guilty. Someone considered indigent may receive community service instead of the fine amount, but that's up to the judge. There's a little more leeway over the fine amount, and what's printed on the tickets and on the city's website is just a recommendation. On the state tickets they can ask for a fine amount of anywhere from $1-200, and on the municipal level anywhere from $1-500.

The big compromise that was made was an agreement to level the fines between cars and bicycles. Specifically, wrong way on a one way street and riding with no lights is $10-51 more on a bicycle than in a car. They briefly mentioned raising the car fines to match the bikes, but it was agreed to bring them down to the level of the car fines. I think that's a better match, as those fines align better with the rest of the bicycle fine structure.

Daniel Norton actually pushed for the fines to be lowered beyond the car amount, and leveled around $20-40 depending on the severity of the infraction. The city wasn't open to that, as it would only save ~$25 on a $167 ticket, which isn't really that much in the grand scheme of things. It'd also open the conversation up to favoritism for a particular mode of transportation, and isn't equality really what this is all about?

We also discussed something that was mentioned at last nights' BAC meeting; that is the possibility of creating a "Cyclists Safety Course", which would be a condensed version of the LCI-approved courses that the ACA offers. They're trying to figure out a way to reduce the cost from $60 to $25, so as to make it more feasible to a cash-strapped cyclist. Fred Meredith was Austin's 1st LCI-certified instructor, and said that removing the on-street portion of the training would remove the insurance fees and reduce the cost, as would shortening the course and confining it to classroom learning and a written test. Might not be a bad program if they can make it as inexpensive as a Drivers' Safety Course. As it is I know cyclists who took the DSC so they could get red light tickets dismissed, and they don't even have drivers' licenses!

Judge Solmon made a couple points very clear. First off, the fines specifically labeled "BICYCLE" should NOT count as points on a license for insurance purposes or license surcharges. If for any reason they do show up you should contact the municipal court and have them make sure it's differentiated. He said that we cannot be put in jail for not paying a fine as long as we come to terms with the court and work on a fine structure or other method of payment. If you absolutely cannot pay, you can speak with the judge and see about community service, which they have the option to grant in cases of indigence. If you don't respond to the ticket and set up a payment plan or community service restitution, they WILL issue a warrant for your arrest. Though that sounds scary, he made sure we knew that if we do have a warrant and come down to the court to set up a meeting to make it up, you WON'T be arrested while you're there. That's pretty sweet of them.

I know this post is kind of rambling, but the main point I got is for a bunch of authority figures, these guys are really reasonable and more importantly, willing to WORK with us. I heard the possibility of a couple more meetings to discuss things, so we'll see what happens in the short-term. It is nice to have a couple questions cleared up about inability to pay fines, warrants, ticket amounts, and stuff like that. Hopefully the cyclists and the City can continue to have this open dialogue and work on our differences, rather than come to conflict over them. I was pleasantly surprised by this meeting, but if you have any questions about this shit hit me up and I'll try to address them as best I can.