Consultants recommend moving penalty schedule out of municipal code; commission votes to advertise ordinance

Consensus Planning presented the city commission with a recommendation to remove penalty-assessment amounts from Lovington's municipal code and place them in a separate, administrable schedule, a change the consultants said would make it easier for the city to update fines without revising the code.

"My name is Jackie Fishman, and I'm with Consensus Planning," consultant Jackie Fishman said in a presentation to the commission, outlining work that involved the police chief, fire marshal, judge, code enforcement and animal services. The firm organized penalties into categories (traffic, code enforcement, animal enforcement and fire) and proposed new amounts that, in the consultants' example pages, ranged roughly from about $74 to $529 depending on the infraction. Fishman showed a street-parking example where the penalty would move from $329 for a first violation to $500 for a second violation.

City manager Miranda and staff said the change is intended to give enforcement agencies more effective tools. "This will enable code enforcement, the chief of police, [and the] fire marshal to really have more bite with the community," Miranda said, adding that some previous fines were so low people would "pay to play" rather than remediate violations.

Staff described the approach as two parts: (1) code amendments to remove hard-coded dollar amounts and (2) a separate penalty-assessment schedule (a chart) that would be referenced by the code. Fishman said the draft ordinance includes redline code changes and a "cheat sheet" summary to help commissioners and the public identify affected sections.

The commission voted to advertise Ordinance 618 (Resolution 2026-084), allowing the full penalty schedule and redline language to be distributed for review before the commission considers final adoption. Staff told commissioners the actual schedule will be provided prior to the next meeting so members can compare current and proposed penalties.

Commissioners and staff emphasized enforcement goals and the need for careful review. Miranda and staff signaled they will provide a before-and-after comparison of current penalties and the proposed schedule so commissioners can verify the package before any final vote.

Next steps: the commission authorized public advertisement of the proposed code amendment and penalty-assessment program; staff will circulate the full packet, and the commission will consider adoption after the public-notice period and review.