The Hollister council Monday approved an item urging the county board to OK increasing local vehicle fees to pay for a traffic enforcement officer.
The prospective addition of a traffic officer – allowed through a state bill – would have to involve the county increasing its motor vehicle fee from $1 to $2 and commercial vehicle fee from $2 to $4.
The possible fee hike and addition of a traffic officer comes weeks after a Free Lance report pointing to a steep decline in local traffic enforcement.
Using funds passed through state Assembly Bill 767 – which requires municipalities to use the money on specific enforcement areas – the city would pay for one-third of the costs for a new traffic enforcement officer.
The city would be required to use the money on a vehicle theft task force or enforcement of driving under the influence. According to the police department’s report, the money would go toward a motorcycle officer who would run DUI checkpoints and the AVOID program.
The city would pay about $55,000 in new tax revenue to pay for the role, while county supervisors must still OK their end of the arrangement.
Hollister has been without a traffic officer since 2004, according to the council agenda report on the matter.
The possible hiring of the traffic officer comes after a Free Lance report in September pointing to a steep drop in issuance of speeding citations in the city.
In the most recent calendar year, 2013, police gave out 76 speeding tickets, according to city data. In 2012, the city issued just 43 speeding tickets.
Those numbers represent a general decline from the prior three years. In 2011, police issued 259 speeding citations. In 2010, police issued 129. And in 2009, officers gave out 180 speeding tickets, according to city data provided to the Free Lance in response to a public records request.
The police department in the agenda report cited statistics from 2003, the last year when the city had a traffic officer. That year there were 2,076 traffic citations issued compared with 1,104 in 2013.
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