(A) Minimum penalty for violations of all ordinances.
(1) Fines not to be reduced below minimum. Not withstanding any provision of any other ordinance of the City of Union, the Municipal Court shall not defer, waive, suspend or otherwise reduce the fine for a violation of a city ordinance to an amount below the minimum fine required by this section.
(2) Not affected. Nothing in this section:
(a) Affects the manner in which a court imposes or reduces monthly obligations other than fines payable to the City of Union;
(b) Allows the Municipal Court to reduce any fine amount below a minimum fine amount established by state statute that controls the amount of the fine in a given instance; and
(c) Affects the ability of the Municipal Court to establish a payment schedule for fines imposed by the court upon a showing of inability of a defendant to immediately pay.
(3) Unitary and county assessments in addition to fine. For the purpose of establishing the minimum fine required by this section, the unitary assessment required by O.R.S. 137.290 and the county assessment required by O.R.S. 137.309 shall not be included; instead, they shall be assessed in addition to the minimum fine.
(4) Minimum fines. The minimum fine shall be 20% of the maximum fine allowed by the ordinance of which the defendant is convicted for a first offense.
(5) Increasing maximum fine for certain violations.
(a) If a person is convicted to a traffic violation that was a factor contributing to a traffic accident, the minimum fine shall be 60% of the maximum fine established for the violation of which the person was convicted.
(b) If a person is convicted of a traffic violation that occurred within a street work zone that has been posted as such or within a posted school zone, the minimum fine shall be 80% of the maximum fine established for the violation of which the person was convicted.
(c) If a person is convicted of a violation that resulted in intentional harm to the person or property of another, the minimum fine shall be 80% of the maximum fine established for the violation of which the person is convicted.
(d) If a person is convicted of any city ordinance, and if the conviction is the second conviction of that city ordinance within a one-year period, then the minimum fine shall be 40% of the maximum fine established for the violation of which the person was convicted.
(e) If a person is convicted of any city ordinance, and if the conviction is the third conviction of that city ordinance within a one-year period, then the minimum fine shall be 100% of the maximum fine established for that violation of which the person was convicted.
(f) All subsequent convictions within a one-year period of violations shall be the maximum penalty for which the person was convicted.
(B) Providing for procedures in Municipal Court; providing a general penalty for violations of all ordinances.
(1) Pretrial proceedings.
(a) The Municipal Court and the Judge thereof shall have jurisdiction over all violations of city ordinances. This requirement shall not be interpreted as preventing the City of Union from contracting with another public body for judicial services by a Judge thereof, nor from citing any person into the Circuit Court of the State of Oregon when the offence to be charged is a violation of state law.
(b) Persons to be charged with a violation of an ordinance of the City of Union shall not be arrested, but shall be summoned to appear before the Municipal Judge by means of a summons, complaint, citation or a combination thereof. The Municipal Judge shall have the authority by rule to determine the requirements of the form and content of documents used to charge violations. Absent adoption of rules by the Court, the documents shall, at a minimum, comply with due process.
(c) The only answers to documents charging a violation shall be an admission, a denial or an answer of “no contest”. A denial shall be deemed to controvert every material allegation in the complaint, citation or summons.
(d) Motions, answers and pleas to documents charging a violation shall be made either orally in open court or in writing, according to rules of procedures as may be set by the Municipal Judge.
(e) Upon an answer of “no contest” or admission to a complaint charging an infraction, the Court shall render judgment against the respondent. Upon an answer of denial, the court shall set the case for trial without a jury, unless the person charged is entitled to a jury pursuant to Ord. 253, as amended by this section.
(f) In lieu of a personal appearance and answer, the person charged with a violation may file with the court a written waiver of appearance and forfeiture accompanied by a deposit of the scheduled forfeiture as provided for in Section 10.99(B)(3)(f). In addition, the person may file with the waiver a written explanation of the circumstances of the violation. The Municipal Judge may, after any further investigation the Judge deems necessary to verify the respondent’s explanation, reduce all or a portion of the scheduled forfeiture and refund any balance to the person charged. Notwithstanding the foregoing, upon the written request and justification by the City of Union, the Municipal Judge may on a case by case basis order the personal appearance of the person and disallow the filing of a waiver and forfeiture.
(g) The Municipal Court, or an attorney licensed to practice law in the State of Oregon, shall have the power to issue summons for the appearance of witnesses in Municipal Court. It shall be the duty of all persons duly subpoenaed in any cause pending in the Municipal Court to attend the Court and testify in accordance with the requirements of the subpoena.
(h) Any witness who shall refuse to attend the Municipal Court or to testify as required by division (B)(1) above shall be deemed and held to be guilty of contempt of court, and the Court, in case of the refusal, shall have authority to issue a warrant for the arrest of any person so refusing and, on the persons being brought before the court on the warrant, unless the person shall purge himself or herself of the contempt by showing his or her inability to attend and testify as required by the subpoena served on him or her, the court shall summarily impose upon the person a fine not exceeding $100.
(i) The laws of the State of Oregon governing the payment of witnesses in justice court shall be and they are hereby adopted in their entirety for the Municipal Court as to the per diem payment and per mileage payment.
(2) Trials. Trials in Municipal Court shall be in accordance with procedural rules as may be adopted by the Municipal Court Judge, though the Judge is not required to adopt procedural rules, and shall generally proceed as follows:
(a) If a defendant is entitled to a jury, after the jury is selected and sworn, the Court shall instruct the jury concerning its duties, its conduct and the order of proceedings;
(b) The city shall then concisely state the plaintiff’s case and the issues to be tried; the defendant then, in like manner, shall state defendant’s case;
(c) The city shall introduce the evidence on plaintiffs case in chief and, when plaintiff has concluded, the defendant shall do likewise;
(d) The parties respectively may introduce rebutting evidence only, unless a court in furtherance of justice permits them to introduce new evidence;
(e) When the evidence is concluded, both sides shall commence and conclude the argument to the court, and jury if applicable. The city shall have the right to reply to the argument of the defendant; and
(f) If a jury has been empaneled after the evidence is concluded, and the parties have argued their cases, the court shall instruct the jury.
(3) General penalty.
(a) Whenever, pursuant to any other ordinance of the City of Union, any act is prohibited or is made or declared to be unlawful or an offense, or the doing of an act is required or the failure to do an act is declared to be unlawful or an offense, the violation shall be classified as a “violation” and shall be punished as provided in this section, notwithstanding any provision of any other existing ordinance of the city. The penalties of this section shall apply to any violation occurring on or after the effective date hereof unless the violation is of an ordinance that is adopted after the effective date hereof which expressly provides a different penalty.
(b) The maximum penalty for a violation shall be an amount not exceeding $500. However, this penalty shall be in addition to any assessment or fine which may be required to be imposed, such as, but not limited to, the unitary assessment described in O.R.S. 137.290, the county assessment referred to in O.R.S. 137.309 or any other fine or assessment which may be imposed by force of law in addition to those imposed by an ordinance of the city.
(c) There shall be no sentence of any imprisonment for any violation.
(d) Every day any violation of an ordinance of the city shall continue shall constitute a separate offense.
(e) This section shall apply to the violations of any Oregon state statute when an ordinance of the city makes the violations an offense against the city.
(f) For the purposes of facilitating dispositions of violations, the Municipal Judge may promulgate a schedule of forfeitures plus any required assessments or fines for particular infractions, and the person charged with an infraction may deposit with the Court the amounts so scheduled, waive further appearance and have the sum so deposited forfeited as on a plea of “no contest”. The Court shall not, however, be bound by the schedule on appearance and admission by the person charged, or on trial and judgment against the person charged. The Court in such a case may impose any forfeiture allowed by this section.
(g) This section shall not be interpreted as prohibiting or limiting the city’s right to abate, enjoin or alleviate an ordinance violation when the power is given to the city by ordinance or common law.
(4) Arrest for failure to respond to court summons. Notwithstanding the terms of any provision of the City of Union Code otherwise, if a person fails to either appear in accordance with § 10.99(B)(1)(b) or to waive appearance and deposit the scheduled forfeiture in accordance with § 10.99(B)(1)(f), the City of Union may apply to the Municipal Court for an order directing the issuance of a warrant for the arrest of the person. The request shall be accompanied by an affidavit which shall state the relevant facts. If the Court finds that the person received a summons, complaint, citation, or combination thereof and failed to appear or alternatively failed to waive appearance and deposit the scheduled forfeiture, the Court shall order the issuance of a warrant for the arrest of the person in order to bring the person before the Court to show cause why the person should not be held in contempt for a failure to appear. Upon a finding of such contempt, the Court may impose a fine in an amount set by the City Council by resolution from time to time, and may impose imprisonment as a penalty, notwithstanding any provision of the City of Union Code otherwise.
(5) Penalty and arrest of certain persons for contempt of court. Notwithstanding the terms of any provision of the City of Union Code otherwise, a person who is ordered by the Municipal Court to undertake certain actions, or to refrain from certain actions, as part of a prior disposition of the person’s violation of an ordinance and who thereafter fails to fully comply with the order shall be deemed and held to be guilty of contempt of court. Notwithstanding §§ 10.99(B)(1)(b) and 10.99(B)(3)(c), the Court shall have the authority to issue a warrant for the arrest of the person in order to bring the person before the Court to show cause why the person should not be held in contempt. Upon a finding of contempt, the Court may impose a fine in an amount set by the City Council by resolution from time to time, and may impose imprisonment as a penalty, notwithstanding any provision of the City of Union Code otherwise.
(Ord. 498, passed 12-12-2005; Ord. 510, passed 11-13-2006; Ord. 538, passed 9-8-2014)