The Dayton Town Board passed a resolution Tuesday, Dec. 17, setting $10 to $200 fines for parking violations.
The resolution passed on a 2-1 vote, with Chairman Chris Klein and Supervisor Glen Newsome voting in favor and Supervisor Lee Schroeder voting against it.
“I don’t think we’re in the business of writing out tickets for $200,” Schroeder said.
Klein noted that Dayton’s 2014 schedule of fines was unchanged from last year.
Fines for improper parking range from $20 to $200, while sign ordinance violations range from $100 to $1,000.
Running an unlicensed sexually oriented business can result in a fine between $500 to $2,000. The town of Dayton charges $250 to license a sexually oriented business and $100 to license a sexually oriented business employee.
Public nuisance violations can be fined between $50 and $500 for a first offense and $75 to $1,000 for a second offense.
Failure to pay the fines can result in up to 90 days in jail.
Schroeder said he could not support the resolution until members of the town board drove around Dayton and reviewed the numerous no parking signs that were placed along roads near boat landings last summer.
“Who’s going to write the tickets?” Schroeder asked. “Who’s going to go out and enforce this?”
“The same people who have enforced town of Dayton ordinances for the last 100 years,” Klein said. “The town board and, specifically, the town chairman by state statutes is required to enforce town ordinances.”
Schroeder, who tabled a proposed resolution in July to allow the town chairman to designate officers to enforce town ordinances, questioned Klein’s authority to issue tickets.
“If you have the authority to write out tickets or if Glen and I have the authority to write tickets, then why did you try to cram this down our throats, saying that we had to sign this thing so that you could have the power to write tickets,” Schroeder said.
“I have the power to write tickets, whether you say so or Glen says so or the whole town board says so or not,” Klein said. “The state statute says the town chairman has the authority to enforce ordinances.”
Schroeder then asked why town officials, rather than county law enforcement, should be issuing parking tickets.
“Parking in the town of Dayton is not the sheriff’s highest priority,” Klein said.
“It shouldn’t be ours, either,” Schroeder responded.