No decision on municipal court as debate escalates

SIKESTON — Sikeston City Council continues to discuss moving municipal court functions to the circuit courts in Scott and New Madrid counties but a decision still has yet to be made.

The item was on the agenda to be voted on at Monday’s council meeting but the measure was tabled after a lengthy discussion with Scott County Circuit Court Judge David Dolan while three council members, Ryan Merideth, Brian Self and Onetha Williams were not in attendance.

Dolan questioned the possible move, saying if Sikeston made the move they would be the only town their size who would not have a municipal court.

“I think (moving municipal court) is not providing a service to your public,” Dolan said.

Sikeston City Manager Jonathan Douglass countered by saying, “I think it is just providing the service in a different way.”

Dolan said his biggest concern is the distance of the court from Sikeston and how people are going to get there.

“A lot of these people don’t have cars. A lot of these people don’t have rides,” Dolan said.

He added that if they don’t have a ride and then are facing a drug or alcohol case and don’t show, the judge can issue a warrant.

“So what’s going to happen? You’re going to put that person in jail,” Dolan said, including the jails are already overcrowded.

Turnbow said that they are facing that situation already.

“How do you propose to the people who can’t get to the building across the street get to (court) in Benton or New Madrid,” Dolan asked

“They shouldn’t break the law,” said Karen Bailey, Sikeston financial officer to which Dolan replied that people are going to break the law regardless.

Turnbow said that to have a court system that everybody could walk to would require a mobile court system that would drive to people’s houses.

While Dolan feels the move would be a hardship to Sikeston citizens, Sikeston officials are concerned with the costs to the city along with increased standards put on municipal courts.

Bailey said by transferring municipal court to the circuit courts, the City of Sikeston would save in excess of $158,000 this year, with the amount increasing each year thereafter.

She added that municipal courts in the state have undergone major changes in the wake of Senate Bill 5, a sweeping court reform law enacted in 2015. The bill imposed new restrictions on how much municipal courts could charge violators in fines and penalties and prohibited those courts from sentencing violators to confinement for failure to pay a fine. Making the move the City also wouldn’t have the costs of additional software that is being required by the state along with additional computers that would be needed.

“So your worried about your expenses against the public safety budget of $7 million,” Dolan asked. “What is that, less than half percent to provide a public service to your citizens?”

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s $160,000 or $16,000,” Sikeston Mayor Greg Turnbow said. “We’ve got to be the good steward of the money for the citizens and I think that is the right thing by saving $160,000.”

Councilman Brandon Sparks asked Dolan, “As a citizen of Sikeston, you are OK as a taxpayer for the city to just use this deficit as a cost of doing business?”

“It is, that’s all it is,” Dolan said. “If you can afford $7 million why can’t you afford that?”

Douglass added when making the city’s budget, it always comes down to cutting $100,000 and nickle-and-diming everybody’s budget to make it balance.

Turnbow added that the state is making more and more requirements of the municipal courts, making it seem like the state is trying to get away from having municipal courts.

Dolan disagreed though, saying that is not the case. He said the the new standards are being placed on courts to have them run the right way.

“The municipal courts were being used as municipal producing businesses for cities and they were not being run properly,” Dolan said.

Dolan said the state added things like IT and Show-Me Courts to do that.

The Missouri Supreme Court is requiring all courts go to Show-Me Courts by Aug. 1. The Sikeston municipal court hasn’t made the move to Show-Me Courts, which is free, because they have been discussing the move to the circuit courts.

However, with the deadline looming, current municipal court employees are concerned with what to do.

Dolan said that he can send a letter to the Missouri Supreme Court and ask for an extension if that’s what the municipal court wants.

“I think your problem is you all don’t want to get up to date with the IT,” Dolan said. “Put this thing in place and you can do everything from your office back here. I just don’t think you want to change.”

Municipal Court Judge Frank Marshall said while the court was under a deadline to implement Show-Me Courts, they weren’t under a deadline to make a decision on whether to move municipal court functions. He suggested to ask for an extension and get Show-Me Courts and they can continue the debate.

Sparks asked what it would entail to get Show-Me Courts. While the software is free, a specialized scanner is required which the municipal court doesn’t have.

Douglass said the move to Show-Me Courts hasn’t been made because they didn’t want to transition to new software if they were going to turn around and move municipal court to the circuit courts.

“We can go ahead and (get Show-Me Courts) but the cost savings isn’t going to be achieved by Show-Me Courts,” Douglass said.

One question arose if the county circuit courts would be able to handle the increased case load or have additional expenses.

Dolan said it isn’t going to be that much of an additional expense, but said it is bad timing coming off of the pandemic.

“We’re a year behind in court services,” Dolan said. “We didn’t have jury trials for a year. We’re stacked up. I have jury trials set every day for the rest of the year and I’m already setting stuff for the fall of 2022.”

He said because of the increased case load, a lot of cases will be pushed to Associate Circuit Judge Zac Horack, who would be handling municipal court.

“You think your city court is going to become a priority for somebody who is sitting in jail waiting a year on a jury trial,” Dolan asked. “I don’t think so. You may get once a month municipal court. It’s not going to be a big priority.”

Dolan also added they are out of room in Benton to store Sikeston municipal court’s files so the files will have to be scanned. Bonds will have to be transferred and the municipal court’s checking account won’t be taken until it has been audited, so he said Sikeston will have some expenses to make to the move.

He also said the city will have to go to Show-Me Courts just to get things moved.

“I don’t know why you’re afraid of it,” Dolan said. “Go to Show-Me Courts. Keep your court across the street and get your business done. That’s all you have to do.”

If the city were to keep the municipal court, they would need more than an update to Show-Me Courts to be in compliance. Bailey said currently they are not in compliance with other things, such as not having a civilian bailiff.

Marshall said the mandates that are being spoken about are not being added but they’ve been around for years.

“The only thing new is Show-Me Courts,” Marshall said. “They want everyone on the same operating system. It’s not to force anybody out.”

Marshall added he spoke to a Supreme Court monitor, a person with the state that goes around and check on municipal courts to see if they are complying with things, about bailiffs and communities that can’t afford a bailiff.

The monitor said he understood some communities can’t afford a bailiff but they are trying to keep up with appearances of the bailiff being a separation from the police department.

“So if your police officer changes his shirt, puts on a polo shirt that doesn’t say police, that would be alright,” Marshall said. “I mentioned that to the Supreme Court monitor today and asked if that would be in compliance. He said, ‘I haven’t found anything that says you can’t do that.’”

Dolan asked how the tickets written by police are put into the system.

“Somebody’s got to enter that electronically,” Dolan said. “Not our clerk’s office. We’re not going to take a stack of tickets from the prosecutor. The prosecutor has to enter those before they come to us so somebody still has to process those.”

Bailey said right now the court clerks are entering tickets and they shouldn’t be, the prosecutor’s clerk should.

“Again, we have not pushed for change because we want to know what direction we are going in because we want to make one change, not six different steps,” Bailey said. “We need a prosecutor’s clerk. Whether we go to Show-Me Courts and it stays with the city or we turn it over to the circuit court, we’re going to have to have a prosecutor’s clerk.”

Dolan said he looked up Sikeston’s compliance requirements with the Supreme Court Monday and found that none of the last two years were in compliance.

“It says ‘has to be refiled’ so whoever is encoding it in is not encoding it correctly because they haven’t been accepted for what they filed,” Dolan said.

After hearing the arguments, Sparks said he didn’t feel comfortable voting with just half the council, as three members were missing.

“I think there should be a full council here to hear what everybody has to say,” Sparks said and the four council members in attendance agreed to table the measure until a future meeting.