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Perry Council raises per-ticket technology fee to cover DigiTicket costs
Summary
The Perry City Council approved Ordinance 2024-19 to raise the municipal technology fee applied to each citation, citing rising DigiTicket costs; council passed the emergency measure after debate over whether $20, $25 or a higher fee would be appropriate.
The Perry City Council voted Sept. 16 to amend city code and increase the per-citation technology fee that helps pay for DigiTicket hardware and services. The ordinance (No. 2024-19) raises the technology fee from $16 to $20 per citation and was approved as an emergency measure by roll call.
Council members debated how closely the $20 proposal would cover the city’s DigiTicket invoice and whether the fee should be set higher to fund additional in-vehicle technology. The police chief described how the digitized ticketing system works and why costs have climbed since the units were procured in 2017: “When we got these in 2017, we were paying $235 per unit per month … so we were paying $16 per citation to help us fund our DigiTicket,” the chief said, explaining the request to increase the fee by $4 to match higher vendor pricing.
Council members raised operational and fairness concerns, including whether increasing the fee would prompt more cost-hearing procedures in municipal court or whether the fee should be adjusted to cover future upgrades (computers or tablets in patrol units). Meredith, the city CFO, provided fiscal context about past citation counts and invoicing: she noted that 652 citations were written in 2021 and that an increase to $25 per citation would bring the technology funding closer to breaking even on the current DigiTicket invoice.
Scott moved the ordinance and Derek seconded; the council then voted by roll call on the emergency declaration and ordinance and recorded unanimous approval. The ordinance amends Perry Municipal Code §1-114 and declares the emergency so the fee increase takes effect immediately.
Next steps: staff said they will fold this change into a broader fee-schedule review and may return with recommendations if the council decides to further adjust the fee to support additional in-vehicle technology or future upgrades.
