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Municipal violations hearing spotlights backlog, staffing shortfalls and new automation tools
Summary
At a BAA hearing, agency official Leah Whitmer described expansion of automated ticketing, a self-service portal and kiosks, a backlog of by-mail hearings tied to staffing shortages, a $100,000 pay correction for part-time judges and projected tax-roll rollovers of $500,000–$600,000.
Leah Whitmer, presenting for the Municipal Violations Bureau, told the hearing the bureau is expanding automated enforcement and rolling out a self-service portal (mvb.seattle.gov) and in-office kiosks so people can view evidence, pay or contest electronic tickets and schedule hearings.
Whitmer said automated programs — including a school bus stop-arm ticketing start in May and red-light and school speed-zone tickets beginning after a 60-day warning period in November — have driven higher ticket volume. “As the ticket volume goes up, the disputes go up, even if the dispute rate stays relatively the same,” she said, and the bureau now handles more than 15,000 disputes annually.
The bureau’s adjudication process remains partially manual in IPS for BAA cases, Whitmer said, which has created a backlog concentrated in by-mail hearings. She…
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