1. Ordinance 1443 - Suspend Interest Charges - Municipal Court - 2nd ReadingKalispell Municipal Court
Judge Heidi Ulbricht
Post Office Box 1997 - Kalispell, Montana 59903-1997 - Telephone (406)758-7705 Fax (406)758-7758
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council
FROM: Judg Heidi Ulbricht
SUBJECT: Ordinance No. 1443
MEETING DATE: January 21, 2003
BACKGROUND: The council unanimously approved the first reading of
Ordinance No. 1443. This ordinance will permit the court to suspend assessing
interest until it has the capability of calculating the interest on the new software
program. The council had a question as to why the court could not continue to
manually calculate the interest until the software module is installed.
I have personally spoken to the Montana Supreme Court Information
Technology staff. The IT staff has analyzed our situation and in order for the
Court to be fully automated the interest calculation needs to be suspended.
There is not currently a place on the software to "plug" interest.
The court's goal is to be fully automated and if it were required to calculate
interest it would be necessary to run our manual procedures along with the new
software. This would be almost impossible because the court does not have the
personnel resources to accomplish this. It would be necessary to hire contract
labor.
RECOMMENDATIONS: Approve Ordinance no. 1443
FISCAL EFFECTS: $1,00045,000
ORDINANCE NO.1443
AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE NO. 1240 TO ALLOW THE MUNICIPAL
COURT TO SUSPEND INTEREST CHARGES ON ALL CONTRACTS UNTIL THE
NECESSARY SOFTWARE HAS BEEN PROVIDED TO THE COURT BY THE
VENDOR OR A PERIOD OF SIX MONTHS AND DECLARING AN EFFECTIVE
DATE.
Based upon evidence provided by the Kalispell Municipal Court Judge,
Heidi Ulbricht, the Council finds that the new court software program
scheduled to be installed during the week of February 3rd through 7th ,
2003 will not contain the necessary functions to be able to assess and track
interest charges on contracts and that such software is scheduled to be
provided within six months.
2. Therefore, Council finds that it is necessary to amend Ordinance No. 1240
to allow the Court to suspend the assessment of interest on contracts until
the necessary software has been provided or for a period of no longer than
six months.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF KALISPELL, MONTANA,
AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Ordinance No. 1240 shall be and is hereby amended to allow the Kalispell
Municipal Court to suspend the assessment of interest charges on contracts until such
time as the necessary software is obtained for this function or for a period not to exceed
six months.
SECTION 2. This Ordinance shall be effective thirty (30) days from and after the date
of its final passage and approval.
PASSED AND APPROVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL AND SIGNED BY THE MAYOR
THIS 21 ST DAY OF JANUARY , 2003.
Pamela B. Kennedy
Mayor
ATTEST:
Theresa White
City Clerk