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Committee backs perfection for three MoDOT traffic-safety grant ordinances
Summary
Jackson County Justice and Law Enforcement Committee voted to recommend perfection on three Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) traffic-safety grant ordinances that fund impaired-driving and hazardous-moving-violation enforcement, and one wage-sharing grant for a full-time DWI traffic unit.
The Jackson County Legislature’s Justice and Law Enforcement Committee voted to recommend perfection on three ordinances funding annual traffic-safety grants administered by the Missouri Department of TransportationHighway Safety and Traffic Division.
The committee recommended perfection on Ordinance 6018, Ordinance 6019 and Ordinance 6020 after testimony from Sergeant Danny Barnes of the sheriff’s office, who supervises the traffic safety unit.
Barnes told the committee these are annual, federally funded grants passed through MoDOT and NHTSA to reduce roadway injuries and fatalities. “This is the eighteenth year that these grants have been renewed including the full time traffic safety unit grant,” Barnes said. He described Ordinance 6018 as an overtime enforcement grant targeted at impaired-driving enforcement and said Ordinance 6020 is an overtime enforcement grant that focuses on hazardous moving violations such as distracted driving, following too close and speeding. On Ordinance 6019, Barnes said it funds a full-time unit of five deputies and one sergeant whose primary mission is DWI and traffic enforcement, and that MoDOT funds 50% of salaries and benefits under that grant.
Why it matters: Jackson County has averaged about 100 traffic fatalities a year, Barnes said, with roughly 20 of those crashes related to impaired driving; the grants support enforcement intended to lower those numbers.
Committee action followed standard procedure: members moved and seconded each recommendation to perfect the ordinances, and each ordinance was carried by the committee. The chair recorded an affirmative vote with no recorded opposition during the committee voice votes.
Details from the ordinances as read into the record: Ordinance 6018 (appropriating funds for impaired-driving overtime enforcement; amount printed in the meeting materials), Ordinance 6019 (appropriating $473,774 and transferring $364,690 to accept a DWI traffic safety unit salary grant that funds five deputies and one sergeant on a 50/50 salary-share basis with MoDOT), and Ordinance 6020 (appropriating $18,200 for hazardous moving-violation enforcement overtime). Committee members asked only procedural questions before moving each measure to perfection.
Ending: The ordinances will proceed from committee to the full legislature for further consideration.
