Judge Gary Helm urges council to back rescinding Senate Bill 5, says municipal courts have lost enforcement tools

Judge Gary Helm told the Independence City Council that Senate Bill 5 has “been a total disaster for municipal courts” since it went into effect about eight and a half years ago and asked the council to support a resolution urging the state legislature to rescind the law.

Helm, who said he has served as a municipal judge for 32 years, told council members that courts no longer can suspend drivers’ licenses for failures to appear or otherwise apply penalties that previously encouraged people to show up for hearings. “There’s no punishment for not showing up for court anymore,” he said, and that change has driven appearance rates down to “on a good day maybe a third, on a bad day maybe 15%.”

The judge attributed several operational effects to the change in state law: increased administrative work sending additional summonses and notices, reduced fine revenue, higher costs to staff courts and police, and a “revolving door” of people who do not appear for show-cause hearings. Helm said some smaller municipal courts have closed or consolidated because the changes made local enforcement financially unsustainable.

Council members asked clarifying questions about how procedures changed. Mayor (unnamed) asked whether issuing warrants is harder now; Helm replied that courts must now send additional summonses and cannot immediately issue arrest warrants for missed court dates, adding expense and delay. Helm also told the council that municipal courts previously used license suspension and late or warrant fees to induce compliance, and that those remedies have largely been removed or limited by the statute.

Helm connected the enforcement changes to public-safety concerns, saying drivers who would previously have been deterred by license suspension now “continue to drive” and that reduced fines and enforcement lower incentives to comply with vehicle and traffic laws. He also said municipal courts are having to handle more complex cases, including drug cases, which he said increases prosecutorial and court costs.

The mayor said he has drafted a resolution for the council to express support for rescinding the law; Helm said he strongly supported it. The transcript records discussion and questions but does not show a formal motion, second or vote on the resolution during the meeting.

Council discussion and public-safety framing concluded the item with no formal action reported in the meeting transcript.