The drumbeat of change in the divided, grossly inefficient and often oppressive St. Louis County municipal government cabal is beating louder and nearing its crescendo.
This week, the Missouri Legislature has a chance to add its unified, bipartisan voice to those who have already weighed in, noting with clarity and purpose that having 91 municipalities (including the city of St. Louis), 60 police departments, and 82 municipal courts, is the very definition .
Already, the Missouri Supreme Court, the Department of Justice, the Ferguson Commission, the nonprofit Better Together organization, and now the national Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), have voiced to a system that preys on poor people by using police departments and municipal courts as fund-raisers for cash-strapped cities that shouldn’t even exist.
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The addition of PERF to the conversation as lawmakers are weighing their final options on adds a needed voice to the chorus. PERF is a think-tank run by police for police, seeking best practices. Here’s what their researchers said about the St. Louis Way, in which police departments are often told by small town mayors to meet ticket quotas:
“In many municipalities, policing priorities are driven not by the public safety needs of the community, but rather by the goal of generating large portions of the operating revenue for the local government. This is a grossly inappropriate mission for the police, often carried out at the direction of local elected officials.”
This must end. Mr. Schmitt’s bill, which would reduce the amount of revenue that municipalities in the St. Louis region can collect from traffic fines to no more than 10 percent of their budget, is the clearest path to achieving that goal.
As we write this, lawmakers are meeting in conference committee to reconcile competing House and Senate versions of the Glendale Republican’s bill. It should not be very difficult to come to a reasonable compromise that gets this important legislation to Gov. Jay Nixon’s desk.
Senate Bill 5 is that rare legislation that serves as an example of what the Missouri Legislature can be at its best. It was filed with the best of intentions, to deal with a real problem brought forward in the St. Louis region, a problem that had been , really, but rose to the forefront of public consciousness following the Aug. 9 killing of Ferguson resident Michael Brown and the protests and unrest that followed his death.
Protesters, legal advocates and reporters all shed light on this insidious practice of what has amounted to using the municipal courts as debtor’s prisons for poor, black residents stopped in city after city, often just blocks from each other, for minor traffic offenses that add up to thousands of dollars in fines.
Both the House and Senate held long, public hearings on the legislation and heard from a wide array of supporters and opponents. There are contributions to what should be the best version of a final bill in both Mr. Schmitt’s version and the House one pushed by Speaker of the House John Diehl, R-Town and Country, and Rep. Robert Cornejo, R-St. Peters.
The most important thing for the conference committee to get right is the percentage of revenue that can be collected by municipalities in the St. Louis region. In that regard, Mr. Schmitt’s 10 percent should be the target. The House version’s of 15 percent is too high.
Ferguson, for instance, according to of municipal court data, takes in 14.38 percent of its revenue from traffic tickets. With the Department of Justice report’s clear conclusion that the Ferguson police and courts were abusing the traffic court system — so badly that the Missouri Supreme Court stepped in and replaced the judge and took over the court — passing a bill that would leave Ferguson off the hook would be a massive mistake.
There are 11 municipalities in St. Louis County, including Wellston in north St. Louis County and Creve Coeur, Ellisville and Town and Country in west St. Louis County, that wouldn’t be affected by the 15 percent limit, but would be by the 10 percent limit.
Lawmakers should agree to a number as close to 10 percent as they can. They must reduce the incentive for municipalities to depend on traffic court for revenue, and should not for a moment believe that the problem is only a north St. Louis County one.
Other elements of the bill also move the arch of justice in the right direction. would require that municipal court judges follow the same ethical guidelines set by the Supreme Court for all other judges. The Court is in the process of considering new rules that will change how municipal courts are operated forever. The House version also gets rid of the “failure to appear” charge and sets into motion a series of penalties for municipalities that don’t comply with the law, including a reduction of sales tax revenue and a path by which disincorporation proceedings can begin.
The passage of Senate Bill 5 can be a major step toward both improving the protection of civil rights of citizens in the county, especially people of color, while also providing real incentive for the region to change, to get better by subtraction, one municipality at a time.
At its core it is a simple bill that does two things:
It protects the civil rights of all citizens by reducing the incentive for governments to exist just because they can. Any attempt to raise the percentage of revenue a city can collect from traffic tickets to a number higher than 10 percent diminishes both of those causes. Such a move would protect government over people.
The conservatives who dominate the Legislature should choose the lower number and pass Senate Bill 5 this week.
