Hearings for parking tickets and zoning ordinances haven’t occurred since December
By Anne Trautner
Assistant Editor
The village of Walworth has not had any court hearings involving zoning ordinances or parking tickets since December.
“One of the problems is that a hearing can’t be held without a court clerk, and [Judge John “Jay” Peterson] hasn’t been able to find anyone to hire yet,” said Donna Schut, clerk treasurer for the village.
On Monday, the village board discussed the possibility of requesting a change of venue for the municipal court’s first branch so that cases could be heard.
The court’s second branch has been meeting since March, but under the village’s ordinance, does not hear zoning or parking cases.
The second branch was formed in February, when the village board named Peterson judge for the first branch and Charles “Pat” Hubertz judge for the second branch.
Peterson, who was re-elected to a four-year term in April 2011, has been municipal judge in Walworth since the court was formed in 2006. Village trustees asked Peterson to resign in December.
There have been no allegations of wrongdoing on behalf of the court or Peterson. However, the board had voiced concerns about the municipal court’s rising amount of unpaid fines and Peterson’s handling of indigency cases.
The court’s new branch is bringing in more revenue than the village’s court collected in previous years, Rasmussen said.
“We will probably go beyond the budgeted revenue in our 2014 budget this month because the new judge’s collection efforts are far superior to the previous judge,” Village Board President David Rasmussen said.
In 2013, the municipal court brought in $107,429, and the board had budgeted $130,000 based on previous years’ income, Schut said.
Municipal court revenue so far this year is $87,933, Schut said. The village board budgeted $100,000 for total income in 2014.
“This is an anomaly as far as these are historic collections rather than just a splurge of new tickets,” Village Trustee Todd Watters said.
“We are collecting on old stuff. [Hubertz] is doing a very good job. They have had hearings on indigency, and it doesn’t seem that indigency has been an issue or something that is being raised as often,” Rasmussen said.
During their discussion Monday night, all of the village trustees said they had received no complaints about Hubertz.
No formal decision was made Monday night about changing the venue for the court’s first branch.
In other business, the Walworth Village Board approved about $120,000 to be spent on road repairs.
Adeline and Read streets will be repaved from one end to another, with Read Street receiving new curbing. About 20 to 25 feet will be repaved on First, Second and Third streets where they intersect with Read Street.
