Wellington amends municipal code chapter to clarify criminal vs. noncriminal violations

The Wellington Board of Trustees on Jan. 28, 2025, approved Ordinance No. 1-2025, amending Chapter 10 of the Wellington Municipal Code to clarify which municipal code violations are criminal and which are noncriminal.

Town Attorney Dan Sapienza told the board the amendment is a “technical change” designed to remove duplicate lists and make clear that only offenses listed on a specified table are criminal; all other code violations will be processed as noncriminal. "This makes no substantive change, to our practice, to our law, does not define new items as criminal," Sapienza said.

The ordinance replaces a system in which the code contained two separate lists—one for civil/noncriminal infractions and one for criminal violations—where earlier amendments had left some items off the criminal list, Sapienza said. He described the prior wording as “probably, I would say, poor drafting” and said the change avoids the need to maintain two parallel lists that can fall out of sync.

Trustee Moyer asked whether the change affects defendants’ rights to a jury trial. Moyer said she had followed up with research and asked: "When I did do additional research on this item, are we allowed to deny a trial by jury?" Sapienza answered that for noncriminal violations a jury trial and appointment of counsel are not required because incarceration is not a possible sentence. "For a noncriminal violation, absolutely," Sapienza said, adding that constitutionally the right to a jury trial applies when incarceration is possible.

There were no public comments on the ordinance. A motion to approve Ordinance No. 1-2025 passed on roll call; each trustee present voted yes.

The vote clears a technical drafting issue the town attorney said was discovered during prior court review and sets up planned, broader changes to Chapter 10 that Sapienza said the town will bring forward at a later date for comprehensive amendment.