The power to write tickets and collect fines locally was granted last week by the Oxford Village Council.
In separate 3-0 votes, council approved ordinance amendments establishing a parking violations bureau and an ordinance violations bureau, each complete with its own schedule of fines for violators (see public notices on Page 23).
‘Our goal is to not issue tickets,? said village Manager Joe Young. ‘The goal is really to get compliance.?
Rather than continuing to go through Rochester Hills 52-3 District Court, the village will issue its own tickets and collect fine amounts it’s set for parking and ordinance violations.
Fines for parking violations would include $100 for illegally parking in a handicapped space, $15 for parking in a space longer than the posted time limit, and $40 for all other offenses.
Young explained the parking violations bureau is designed to help downtown business owners, who are having problems with people, particularly employees, parking in prime spaces, which have time limits ranging from 15 and 30 minutes to two hours.
Fines for ordinance violations are $25 for the first offense and $100 for the second offense and others thereafter.
Tickets would only be given out after a written warning notice and/or letter has been issued.
Violations include those sections of the code of ordinances pertaining to animals, canvassers and solicitors, alarm systems, nuisances, excavations, inoperable motor vehicles, streets, sidewalks, snow and ice removal, trees and weeds. It also includes violations pertaining to the village zoning ordinance in its entirety.
Young stressed that in most cases, ordinance violators would be given a ‘reasonable? amount of time to resolve the problem before a ticket is issued.
‘If it’s a safety issue, then we’re going to deal with it right away,? he explained. ‘But if it’s a nuisance issue, we will give them a reasonable amount of time to do that.?
Both parking and ordinance violation fines must be paid to the village within five business days, unless the ticket is being contested, in which case it would have to go through the court system.