Providence Committee on Ordinances-Monday, May 13, 2024-5:30 PM

Oh, it's everybody's on the line.

Are you ready, sir? I

am ready.

It's quiet on the side.

Action. Alright.

Let's do it. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the media and audience. Today it is May 13, and the time is 05:30. Like to welcome customer who is visiting us here tonight.

Thank you so much, counselor. Council president Miller, thank you for being here, we'll thank you, As well, as the clerk of state before you do, and I'm a serious listener. Thank you so much. Mhmm. Mister Michael, I'm hometown from the mayor's office.

Thank you,.

Madam clerk, please go overall.

Chairman Espino.

Present.

Vice chairman Shelley Peterson who's absent. Councilwoman Mary Kay Harris.

Present.

Councilman Oscar Vargas.

Present.

Councilor Justin Royers is absent. We have three present, two absent.

We have a call.

Thank you so much. Madam clerk, I'm going to be taking two items out of order so we can get it through this. So I want to put a motion to take item number five and number six out of order.. Second.. Second one comes with Harris.

Any opinion, aye. Aye. Opposed? Yes. Abbott.

Sorry. Of the court of ordinances of the city of Providence and title city departments.

Thank you so much. So I introduced this amendment. It's actually... The recreational board is composed of five members, three appointed by the mayors, and two appointed by the council. So what I'm looking to do is actually to expand that to seven members.

As you know, the advisory board advises the mayor and council and the directors are no matters related to recreational facilities and activities. So I felt that it was important to have additional input from a recreational director and perhaps even a student. This is the purpose of that. Today, we're gonna be continuing that as I'm moving to hold the public hearing on it so that we can get everybody in tune up and have an input.

Mhmm.

So before I move to schedule for public hearing, if anybody has any questions, I would like to tell you that now. It's not what you set for. We'll continue. So hearing our questions, I would like to set a motion to continue item number one, Jumbo. Second.

Second by.................................

Item number two. An ordinance amending chapter twenty third, streets, sidewalks, and public places, the Providence Court of ordinances to act item one nine in title of public parking.

Thank you so much. So my understanding is this is the capital of Aragas amendment that's been the owner... The owner's... Amendment to the owner's, which been for the last couple of months, and you would work on this. So there are certain managers that you'd like to continue to do on this, and we have a question that we continue this pattern.

But if you like to speak a little bit about it, how to take that, it

will get you to continue. Sure. Thank you very much, Shah, and Absolutely. And thank you to all the members here, president. These ordinances trying to get open spot for the public who come here and pay taxes and and get service out of the city.

K.

And... But we had to do some legal changes to the ordinance to to have a better impact and make sure no no new administration that comes in in the future will be able to to know. And that's why I'm asking you the shared question so that we can continue for next year end and so I can have more time to work it out and work... Make some

Absolutely. I don't see a problem with that. Is there any kind of question pertaining to this? I mean, counselor has a wonderful idea. He's centered around the many people that come to City Hall to conduct their businesses.

He wants to make sure that there is a number of parking spaces that are free that are gonna be available to them. I think it's a wonderful and innovative idea. I don't have any further questions. Anybody have any questions? Alright.

So hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to continue item number two. So move? So vote. Motion is made. Second order second.

So the body all in favor. Aye. Aye. Opposed. Yes.

Okay. So item number four, item number four, please.

Item number four, an ordinance amending chapter a, courts, article one in general section a dash two, disposition of fines, costs, fees in municipal court of the court of ordinances of the city of Providence.

Thanks so much. Do we have anyone presenting on this item here?

Mister chairman. Oh, of course. If you're... Thank you. If you're willing, we have our court administrator here tonight who can explain a little bit more about it, and then there's some thoughts.

Absolutely. Alright. Stand right up. Yep.

Thank you for joining us tonight.

No problem.

So this is this morning.

The plan can be swell again.

Sure.. You swear on your penalty of perjury that the testimony that you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Yes. Please state your name and title letter. I'll ask the class.

I'm the drug administrator. Thank

you. Thank you so much. Please let us see.

So what

we're looking for is a technology surcharge fee to be added to all of the tickets that I heard in The US before. What we're looking for is a $2 fee, which is less than the $3.25 technology surcharge fee that the state currently offers. This is going to be to fund technological innovations for the court, and it starts getting our technology, what I call kind of the war chest started because there is going to be innovation coming in the courts where it starts with being able to process court online, where it's more efficient for people. People have the opportunity to be heard on the digital manner instead of having to take the data for worry about how their children are getting to school, worry about the time and money that they have to sacrifice to come in to fight something that they probably don't have the time or money to do. So the court is trying to get with the times.

Since 2024, people shouldn't have to miss the entirety of work just to fight a parking ticket, just to fight a speeding ticket. Currently, the software that we utilize is a public safety based software. It's not compliant with a lot of the requirements for the secretary of state's office that we're legally required to have for paperwork that also garner transparency for our constituents. So when people come into the court now, there's not a lot of paperwork we can give them. There's not a lot of explanation.