Town Council Passes 2012 Legislative Agenda

The Herndon Town Council passed the town’s 2012 Legislative Agenda on Tuesday night, with a 4-3 vote.

The agenda includes two action items, which the Council will send to local representatives to be put forward as bills, and six informational items that the Council wants legislators to be aware of.

The first action item is on civil zoning fines. Many recipients of civil zoning fines ignore them and it becomes difficult for the locality to collect them. This action item is suggesting the General Assembly amend state code so localities can collect the fines in the same way as real estate taxes.

Town Attorney Richard Kaufman said last May the town wrote off $17,000 in unpaid civil zoning fines. He said most fines range from $200-$500, and the new code would allow the fines to be applied to a property owner’s real estate taxes.

The second action item would amend the state code to allow localities to tow illegally parked trailers. At the moment the state code only allows motor vehicles that are illegally parked to be towed, but because trailers are not technically a motor vehicle, even with multiple tickets they cannot be towed.

The towing of trailers was originally an information item on the Legislative Agenda, but the Council chose to make it an action item. Kaufman said the towing of trailers is something he thinks the General Assembly will pass easily because it is an issue of wording in the code and not a major change of the code. He said the item is something that was requested from the town’s police department.

At the top of the list of information items is the issue of no operator’s license. The item was originally on the action items list, but was moved to the information items because some members of the Council didn’t feel as if it would be supported in General Assembly.

In 2010 the town helped put forth a bill that results in a three-day vehicle impoundment for anyone caught driving without a license for the second or subsequent time. This year’s Legislative Agenda requested a 10-day vehicle impoundment on the third or subsequent offense.

Kaufman said since then the numbers show that the 2010 law may not have made as big of a difference as they had hoped. He said in 2006 there were about 750 cases of no operator’s license in Herndon, and in the year before the bill was in place the cases dropped to 479. He said in the year after the bill was implemented there were 504 cases.

Kaufman said they only have one year of figures for the operation of the 2010 bill and he suggested in June that the Council might want to gather more information and study it for another year before submitting it as a bill.

Other information items on the agenda addressed transient occupancy taxes and online companies; the business license tax; water quality funding; the Line of Duty Act; and eminent domain.

Councilman Jasbinder Singh said he feels people already to comply with the town’s zoning ordinances and the action item civil zoning fines would just be a means for the town to collect money. He said he doesn’t think a bill would help people come into compliance with the town’s zoning ordinances. He said he doesn’t think changing the NOL code would deter people from driving without a license.

Councilwoman Sheila Olem moved to pass the legislative agenda with substitutions. She requested the towing of trailers item be moved from an information item to an action item, and that the NOL item be moved from an action item to an information item.

Olem said she spoke with Del. Tom Rust, Sen. Mark Herring, Sen. Janet Howell and Del. Ken Plum, and they did not think either the House or the Senate would consider changing it because it has only been in effect for one year. Olem said she would like the Council to advise the General Assembly that they would like it changed in the future, but would like to collect more information on its application until then.

Councilwoman Grace Wolf said she would like to see the NOL law improved, but also feels waiting another year would give the town more data and information, providing them a better chance at having the changes passed. She said by moving it to the information items, she feels it still shows that they aren’t going to back down in the issue and it is still important to them.

Vice Mayor Lisa Merkel said having heard from their local delegates and senators, it seems the NOL item would be an uphill battle, and she agreed they should spend another year collecting more data and support from other municipalities and jurisdictions to help push it though.

Councilwoman Connie Hutchinson said she was not comfortable moving the NOL issue to the information items. She said, “It might be an uphill battle but things at the General Assembly that are worth fighting for usually take a couple of years to get through.” She said they should pursue it because it is still on people’s radar.

Councilman Bill Tirrell said the original 2010 bill took two years to get through, and if this is a multiyear project they should start it now. “This is a big deal,” he said. “People who drive without an operator’s license, it’s a big deal. They kill other people, they don’t technically know how to drive.”

Wolf said she feels the Council should wait another year on the NOL item and go after it in the 2013 General Assembly but with a 30-day vehicle impoundment instead of 10. She said it will help guarantee there are not repeat offenders, and that is her motivation for holding onto it.  

Mayor Steve DeBenedittis said they need to continue to work on increasing the penalties for driving without a license. He said with the redistricting that happened this year and a dozen house seats that don’t have incumbents running, the General Assembly will look different, and not everyone will have seen the 2010 code.

DeBenedittis said it may take a couple tries to get through and if it is an informational item they won’t have a chance to introduce it as a bill this year. He said he believes the first offense of NOL should result in a 30-day impoundment, which is the penalty in California.

The Council passed Olem’s motion, moving the towing of trailers to an action item to be put forth as a bill, and moving the NOL issue to the information items. Olem, Wolf, Merkel and Sigh voted yes, and Tirrell, Hutchinson and DeBenedittis voted no.