City moves to implement civil infractions system; staff say software integration will take months

BENTON HARBOR — The commission discussed plans to implement a civil infractions system on June 1 that would allow many municipal code violations to be processed administratively rather than exclusively through criminal court.

City Attorney and staff explained the civil infractions bureau will enable on-the-spot citations to be handled administratively (if a resident pleads responsible) and keep contested matters for court. Staff projected $25,000 in ordinance/civil-infraction revenue as an initial, conservative estimate, but emphasized the system requires BS&A software configuration and coordination with the clerk’s office before it can be spun up.

Commissioner Fields asked how long production rollout would take; staff said the technical and policy steps could take a couple of months and noted that code-enforcement officers can still send cases to court in the interim. The attorney said the city already enforces some ordinances through court and that the civil infractions bureau is intended to streamline low-level enforcement and reduce court costs for the city when residents accept administrative fines.

Staff committed to a timeline for integration and said the initial revenue projection is conservative. Commissioners asked for a follow-up earliest possible—both for enforcement consistency and to create a clearer revenue stream for code enforcement operations.