Municipal Judge Steve Wimmer told the finance committee that the municipal court has experienced a large increase in citations since early 2024, driven largely by traffic violations, and that court revenues have risen accordingly.
"The court has had revenues. This is revenue that we get to keep, of $6,698,111 and 77¢," Wimmer said, providing the committee with a revenue snapshot through September. Wimmer said ticketing rose from about 5,435 tickets in 2023 to roughly 9,219 in 2024; through the meeting date the court had recorded 9,799 tickets and would be on pace for roughly 12,374 by year-end if the trend continued.
Wimmer described the operational impact: larger Wednesday morning dockets for adult initial appearances, a new Monday juvenile court schedule to spread caseloads, and periodic default judgments when defendants do not appear. He estimated that 40–60 people come through court most Wednesdays and that roughly 20–25% of issued tickets lead to an initial court appearance; juvenile appearances are considered mandatory and attendance runs about 60–75%.
Committee members asked whether the increase reflected new enforcement strategies; Wimmer said he could not speak for the police department and suggested that question be directed to police leadership. He emphasized the court’s prioritization of traffic citations because of public-safety risk from stop-sign and red-light violations.
The judge and his clerk, Becky Yerman, provided the committee a written breakdown of ticket counts and revenues to support the operating budget request for the municipal court.