Village Board Work Session Series Continues Reviewing General Fund

During a work session of the Mokena Village Board, Village Administrator John Downs continued a series of updates for the board on the Village's General Fund. During the session, which took place on Monday, Sept. 26, Downs spoke about non-economic driven revenues for the general fund, including various licensing fees, impound fines and fines for false emergency alarms.

“We framed this as one of our key discussion points for this year,” Downs said.

The brief work session saw Downs outline mostly non-changes that he and the Village staff were suggesting to the board. In total, Downs and staff examined 11 categories of revenue for the general fund, with a recommendation to further review only three of those categories.

Categories that were suggested for further review were parking fines, impound fines and proprietor licensing fees.

Impound fines were suggested for further rewview to set up a possible two tiered structure for the fine, Downs said. Police chief Randy Rajewski said that other towns have a similar fine structure for impounds that deal with serious offenses, namely driving while intoxicated.

If a new fine structure is implemented, which there is no guarantee it will be, the highest fine may be as much as $500 according to Rajewski and Downs.

“What we're trying to do is further reduce those types of violations,” he said. “We think based on our track record with the way some of these offenses have been dropping since we implemented the [original] fee, going to $500 on those offenses … would be something to further what we've accomplished so far.”

The proprietor licensing fee was suggested for further review based on its practicality.

“It's pretty much an uncommon fee in other communities … we'd like the chance to review this just a little bit more to see if it's still something that's practical, if it hasn't gotten outdated,” Downs said. “It's a double tiered license, but there may be a good reason for that. We want to look at it a little bit more and maybe bring back a recommendation whether it still serves its purpose.”

The other fees discussed at the work session, which Downs and Village staff suggested be left alone, were liquor license fees, contractor license fees, business license fees, amusement devices fees, provisional business fees, ancillary permit fees for deck, fence and shed construction, false alarm fines and vehicle sticker fees.