 Welcome to Sheboygan city desk. I'm mayor Mike van der steen and hosting the show with me today is our city administrator Darryl hoffman Welcome Darryl. Thank you mayor today. We have a special guest Natasha Torrey who is the judge for the Sheboygan Collar Municipal Court Welcome Natasha. Thank you. Thank you. I'm happy to be here First of all, I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about How long you've been the miss municipal judge for the court? Sure? I was elected April of 2015 and I started my term May 1st of 2015 Okay, and how long is your term? It's a four-year term. So I just just pass that halfway point. Okay Judge Torrey can you Provide for us a little bit of background regarding the court itself. How many years has it been in existence? Sure the court Was created in 2007. So it's in its 10th year And I'm the second judge that's been able to serve in that capacity in the beginning There were approximately 8,000 citations that were processed that first year When we were transitioning from having the circuit court primarily responsible and then that's pretty much studied And leveled off at about 6,000 a year. My understanding. We're not the only municipal court in Shueggen County tell us a little bit about some of the other communities. That's correct So what makes us unique is that we're a joint court So we have an agreement with the village of Kohler that we would be the court for Citations issued in the city of Shueggen and village of Kohler and the rest of the county There are several other municipal courts. There's one in Plymouth Elkirk Lake has a municipal court and so does Shueggen Falls, but they're all separate How many municipal judges do we have in Wisconsin? Right now there are approximately 240 Municipal judges in Wisconsin, but most of those are in rural communities And so because of that most of those judges are solely part-time I believe there's only about five full-time municipal court judges in Wisconsin Question for you is The credentials my understanding there are options for communities as far as what's required of someone who's who's running for The position of a municipal judge. That's true And that's what I think a lot of people find most interesting is that you don't necessarily have to be an Attorney to be a municipal judge by statute. So there is a statute that governs municipal courts and How they're set up and what the qualifications would be and it specifically states that you don't have to have a law degree And the reason for that is because again, there are so many smaller communities in the state that have Municipal courts and it would be cumbersome and cost prohibitive To require that you would have attorneys serve in that capacity because some of these municipalities might not have an attorney that lives there I Have to be a resident of either the city of Sheboygan or village of Kohler if I'm going to serve in the capacity as judge So that would that would be an issue The position is part-time tell me a little bit about your your career or prior experience so I Graduated from the University of Wisconsin law school in 2001 the city of Sheboygan does have a requirement that The municipal judge be an attorney and that's because of our size and so most larger municipalities like ours where we're over $50,000 people do have that requirement and they're there are several and and so again, we're one of those I Have been practicing in Sheboygan for 14 years and prior to that I practiced in Green Bay and Milwaukee Where is the Sheboygan municipal court located? The municipal court is located at 1315 North 23rd Street, and it's in the same building as the police department It's a beautiful location That was created for us when they moved the police department from the city hall building Right off of Kohler Memorial Drive You tell us about the synergies and how that helps to be located with the police department co-located there Well, it's really important to to make it clear that the municipal court is separate We are in no way Affiliated with the police department. We're not an extension of the police department. We are completely separate But the fact that we do have the police department located so close is Convenient for safety reasons, but it's also convenient for police officers So they are able to for instance work in the department on other matters while they're waiting for trial Sometimes they might be called in unexpectedly for testimony and the fact that the police department is right there Makes it more convenient to do that. Well, I know you've changed the hours recently that people can access the court and Conduct paperwork or pay fines. Do you give us a little idea what those hours are sure? The actual desk is open So the court office is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. To 4 30 p.m What has changed is that now you can call and leave a message 24-7 and that message will be answered but you can also pay online and that option is also available 24-7 and we have QR codes that we attach to every Correspondent's in every order from the court to make that a little bit easier to pay online plus there is a Box that can be used. There's a drop box Right outside the court and then there's a drop box outside of the building What else has changed is that the police department has also made themselves available if people do have some general questions Or they want to make a payment of cash without leaving that in the drop box. And so they're doing that Daily between 7 a.m. And 9 a.m. Before we open and then in the evening Between 4 30 and 7 p.m. When we close and then also Saturday mornings So that's quite a quite a few more hours that the court's accessible now Now does the court have hold any hours in the evenings or is it all during the day? we have All of our hours during the day except for Wednesdays and Wednesdays are the day that we have initial appearance hearings and so because of that the court is open Generally till 8 p.m. On Wednesdays, but if we would friend since have court go longer than that then the office would stay open Just or you've mentioned a couple customer service changes that you've made To the advantage of the patrons or customers of municipal court if you could maybe touch on The read the advantages of having a municipal court over what was in existence prior which was a circuit court sure Well, there are advantages for both the defendants as well as the municipality I think that one of the key advantages for defendants is the fact that if you receive a municipal court citation That's a civil forfeiture. It's not a crime the cases that we handle could have been crimes We handle criminal code cases that have been adopted as ordinances by the by the city council. We handle First first offense owi as well as local ordinances some of those offenses could have been crimes But if it's cited in municipal court, it's not a crime Someone doesn't have to indicate on a job application that they've been convicted of a misdemeanor and they don't have to Disclose again that they've been convicted of a crime, but also it's not searchable So in this internet age, even though employers Aren't necessarily supposed to be looking up to on on C-CAP or online to see if someone was charged We know that it happens and so for a municipal court They're not posted online and so that's that's a big plus I think that for a lot of defendants one of the biggest advantages is the fact that You pay a lot less in forfeitures so we have an example of a Ticket that would be $30 so $30 speeding ticket if you were issued that $30 speeding ticket You don't pay $30 if it's issued by the circuit court You end up paying $175 if it's issued by the municipal court you pay $98 So for every every forfeiture that a person receives in municipal court The defendant pays over 75 76 50 more per ticket But the municipality also gets $38 more and I know that that that's a little bit wordy of an answer But but we do have a slide today just to break that down a little bit. So again $30 ticket Once you add in all the costs the amount if it's issued by the circuit court Issued to be heard by the circuit court the defendant ends up paying a hundred and seventy five dollars and fifty thirty cents The municipal court receives twenty five dollars of it if it's issued by an Officer to be heard by a municipal court the defendant pays $98 and eighty cents and the municipal court gets sixty three dollars of it so there's quite a big difference and So that would be a benefit for both the defendant and the municipal court other advantages for the municipal court are the fact That if you have a municipal court Then officers spend a lot less time waiting for trials when there's a circuit court The circuit court has to prioritize the trials that they hear based on sometimes the importance the the degree of Technicality perhaps sometimes You know, I don't like to think that that as a justice system that we see things that as More grievous or or again important than others, but it but it is true that if you have a You know sexual assault case that might take priority over a speeding trial at the municipal court That's not going to happen because we only have non criminal traffic We only have local ordinance violation cases and so they're all of equal import and they all get their their due their time as as scheduled Could you tell us a little bit about Whether municipalities or cities are required to have a municipal court and why they might make that decision Municipalities are not required to have a municipal court And so that's why when I mentioned the municipalities in in Schwoing County that have Municipal courts I didn't include places like Howard's Grove or Oostburg or Cedar Grove because they don't have courts and if there is a desire to have a municipal court then basically people in local government the council needs to Get to come together and make that decision and then have the the proper ordinance is drafted to form that court And that's also governed by statute. What exactly has to happen in order to create a court and the reason that I think Municipalities would want to have a court is because they have concerns about Access to justice for their citizens. They have concerns about the fact that there is such a disparity With the amount of cost between having a circuit court And when you don't have one I know that there are concerns about police time I when I was recently speaking with the village of Kohler police chief at a Periodic lunch that that we get together for he explained to me that a big drive for Kohler and wanting a municipal court was that years ago They would have someone where in Kohler they would be cited for some type of infraction and Send it over to the district attorney's office because that was the way that things had to be done without the municipal court and That there were several occasions where they would receive the documentation back Seven years later yellowed and coffee stained and be told that sorry Too much time has lapsed. We didn't have a chance to prosecute this and again That's because of the prioritization and when you have a municipal court You don't have those issues cases are handled promptly. So I think that that could be a big reason for it Now I just got noticed that I'm going to be serving on jury duty in the circuit court Did is do you have anything any jury type cases? We do not have juries in municipal court I Mentioned before that we do handle first defense OWI cases if you are issued a first defense OWI and you want to have a jury trial Then you don't have you're not required to go through the court process at municipal court You can indicate within 10 days of entering and not guilty play in the municipal court that you want a jury trial We pay a $36 fee and then the case gets moved to the circuit court right away Every other case has the potential to have a jury trial Because every decision that I make as a municipal court judge is appealable to the circuit court And so if you go through the process where you enter not guilty play and then have a trial And then decide that you want to appeal my decision You then have the option to request a jury trial So first defense OWI right away You can go and have a jury trial every other type of infraction that you could be in municipal court For you could potentially have a jury trial after you are not happy with with the result of your trial. Thank you You mentioned when we started today's program that it is a joint court between the city of Sheboygan and the village of Kohler Are all the court proceedings held at the police station at the municipal court a Science space or do you have our hours and court proceedings in the village of Kohler? All of the proceedings are held at the municipal court Which is again located in the same building that we share with the police department, but it is separate and we just have a separate time Kohler initial parents hearings are held the second Wednesday of each month at 1 30 And if there would be a trial needed for a Kohler Citation that would also be held on on the second Wednesday unless another time would be more appropriate or beneficial Otherwise the first third and Fourth Wednesdays are for the city of Sheboygan and and honestly It's at the second Wednesday, too So every every other Wednesday of the month including the second we have initial parents is for Sheboygan But they're in the evening so Kohler is during the day second Wednesday Same place every other every other Wednesday. We also have court for Sheboygan now my understanding as part of your schedule You do differentiate differentiate between adult versus juvenile We do and those are the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month and the reason that we differentiate is because juvenile matters are closed proceedings Sheboygan has taken an extra step in Providing that juvenile traffic is scheduled separately So if you're 16 or 17 and you receive or excuse me 16 or under and you receive a traffic citation That is held on juvenile night That's not necessarily required But in in Sheboygan it's been determined that if it's a young person then maybe they should have a little bit different treatment It's nice to get parents involved. And so those are held on juvenile night And again juvenile night requires that The hearings are closed. So basically Kids and their parents come in they check into the office. They come into the courtroom I'll give my opening statement But then when I address the subject matter and get into details of what happened on the cases if that becomes Appropriate those are in my chambers. So those are private Could you review a little bit the different types of cases that come through the court? Yes, so again, we've we've discussed Non-criminal traffic so that would be traffic offenses like speeding or deviating From your lane running a stoplight cases where there was no no one was seriously injured or it was a first offense Owi then Our local ordinance has adopted several crimes And made it part of our ordinance. So for instance trespass disorderly conduct shoplifting The police officers when they encounter someone who is maybe engaging that behavior have the choice To write a ticket either under as a municipal court citation or have it referred to the circuit court And so we hear those offenses where the officer chose to write a municipal court citation and then also local ordinance Violations and so that could be parking violation building code violations And zoning those are those are the type of local ordinance cases that we hear now We've added some inspectors to our building inspection program code enforcement officers And I understand that they are writing quite a few citations. How has that affected the the court's traffic? Is it been that much of to handle well last year? We had approximately 300 cases that were scheduled for trial and then a third of those we actually had to have trials on So we had approximately 106 trials last year. I Haven't broken it down, but I can't tell you just from my personal Experience and memory that a good chunk of the trials that we have are for building code violation cases But the amount of citations that have been written has gone down and they've gone down significantly during my time and In 2015 we had over 700 citations that were written for building code violations and last year it was a little less than 500 and I think that the reason for that is because we have had these extra officers patrolling the neighborhoods Having conversations with people making people aware of what resources are available to fix their properties I know that in every every warning letter that goes out. There's information about habitat for humanity There's information on resources to contact to get help to fix the roof that might be Having shingles fall off or or the paint that's that's peeled and and exposed the wood so I would say that that Definitely the amount of inspectors and and building code violation citations that are written impacts the court's busyness, but I see it as a very valuable Asset and resource I can say personally That program has has changed my life. I mentioned that I have practiced in Sheboygan County for 14 years But I lived in Oostburg for nine of those years when I first moved to the area I worked for Sheboygan County and I moved from the Milwaukee area and I knew that it wasn't going to be practical for me to drive on those roads For a long long term And I knew that she was a place that I that I wanted to be and that I wanted to work But I was a little reluctant to move here because of driving on Erie Avenue and and seeing the state of the homes and in 2010 The city started to make a real concerted effort in that area to improve the the aesthetics But when you improve the aesthetics you you improve the quality of the whole neighborhood you you improve The desire of people like me who who have no problem coming to Sheboygan to work and to eat to want to live there And so in 2012 I did make that that decision To to move to the city of Sheboygan and I'm very happy with that and I and I love Sheboygan But I do think that I have to give credit and to that building inspection department Whether I knew it or not that made a big impact in my life. Well, that's good to hear And I know that those building code enforcement officers really do try to sell the big picture to the people that are getting citations and do a little bit of education along with With the citation for the work that needs to be get done and I'm glad that's paying some dividends That's that's my understanding and and that's what I what I hear in court Judge Tory last fall you commenced Participation in a state Sort of a revenue intercept or forfeiture intercept program explain a little bit about The benefit of participating in that program sure State debt collection is the name of the program and that's Program that was created by the Department of Revenue to help municipalities collect Outstanding debts and so that could be parking tickets. It could be Citations that that were that resulted in forfeitures to the municipal court it could be debts for ambulance and So basically how the program works is if a person who owes money to a municipality Is more than 30 days overdue? Then the municipality needs to send them a letter and warn them sir, ma'am It's been at least 30 days since your forfeiture since your debt was due to be paid If you don't either make arrangements to start working out a payment plan Or get it paid then there could be other repricate repercussions and and those could be That we take the money from you by either levying your bank account garnishing your wages doing a tax intercept or Putting a lien on your property so there there are various ways that of an enforcement mechanisms and what's official about this program is it takes away the Onus on municipalities to basically be bill collectors And it frees us up to do other things to help to help citizens other than just trying to enforce forfeitures now It's I don't personally see the role of the municipal court as as a source of I don't see it that our job is to make money for municipality But when someone is ordered to pay a forfeiture and they don't I feel like that has to be dealt with because If we don't take that seriously then what we're saying to our citizens is that this group of people that complies with the laws and pays their forfeitures You know are just out of luck and this other group who Receives a citation and doesn't pay a forfeiture That's really it doesn't really matter because we're not going to do anything about it and that's not fair I look a lot. I look at a lot of what we deal with in Municipal court as as dealing with good people law So we have these citations for not wearing a seatbelt Well, that's good people law because we want to protect you okay? We want you to be safe We want you to think about what you're doing when you get behind The wheel or just in a car in general You know statutes that we have to write to present to prevent homicide. Well, you know, that's that's not really good people law That's that's because we have people that do bad things So I mean is the court a lot of what we do is good people law but in order to keep people good and in order to Really have buy-in we can't have disparate treatment And so SDC is just another mechanism that we use to keep people honest and and I'm hoping that it'll be successful We have gained revenue from it and that's great and that will hopefully Benefit our citizens in other ways as well What are some of the other challenges that you're facing that we didn't cover yet? well, I Think that you know one of our biggest needs would be to address Young people in our community especially with with truancy issues I Have again two nights a month for juvenile night because I was finding that one night a month wasn't enough part of what I have to do is is have these little Counseling sessions where I just meet a family for the first time and a child is in front of me for Smoking marijuana or underage drinking and sometimes these kids are 12 years old and And I'm supposed to quickly Try to get down to the bottom of it and I have these parents in front of me that are Exasperated and then they don't know what to do anymore and and then hopefully order them to Participate in a program reduce in community service and hope that it's all good And I really wish that I had more resources than what we have I was recently did some job shadowing with a municipal court judge in Milwaukee and And he would have kids come in front of them and the hearing Didn't seem to be closed and he didn't ask any questions And he just ordered them off to this program and I asked about that and in Milwaukee every kid There's funding for every kid to be Basically followed with a social worker so they have a contract with the social service agency and that Child then has a has more follow Following or backup and so I wish that we would have something like that available to us here Well, I can tell that you and your staff are doing a really good job I appreciate you coming today and sharing more information for the viewers of city desk On how your court operates and some of the changes you've made since you were elected judge Any you know if people want more information, is there any place you can direct them? Well, we do have a link on the city website And so if you would just go to the city of Sheboygan website I mean this court is a listed department, but I would also welcome people just to come visit us in court The hearings are open to the public. I'm always Welling to discuss issues with people or if they have ideas for for how we can make the the court more effective or efficient I'm open to that. Very good. Well, thanks again for joining us. Thank you