MONTE VISTA— City Clerk Unita Vance presented a monthly report to the Monte Vista City Council on Thursday, Nov. 16. Vance is also the court clerk for the city and took time to address how she is working with the interim municipal judge to fix discovered issues.

Vance began with an update on House Bill 16-1309. The bill is what will soon be requiring municipalities to provide counsel to indigent defendants in municipal courts who may be facing jail time. “Governor Hickenlooper is proposing $2 million to be funded to the mandate of the house bill to promote the use of public defenders for indigent defendants,” said Vance. If the proposal passes it will allow for the city to apply for money to appoint counsel for defendants.

Vance shared that she has been working with Interim Municipal Judge Barbara Zollars and City Attorney Karen Lintott to address court issues. “We have talked with the police department and we let them know that if the officers feel it’s a jailable offense they need to write it into county; that way we are not stuck with those bills. Right not all jails across the state are going up in fees for coverage of their inmates,” she said.

Vance said that collection of fees is another area she is working on. Her and the deputy clerk will be taking collection trainings. They will be determining what items are worthy of constant collection activities and which may be cases that should just be closed.

In regards to the requirement that a jail must call a municipality to let the city know a defendant is there on a municipal hold within 48 hours Vance shared she has a city cell phone and has agreed she will be on-call for 24 hours. “When I receive the notice I will call Judge Zollars or whoever our judge is at that time and make an appearance with phone conference with the judge. That way there are no defendants that are being held in custody on a municipal warrant out of Monte Vista,” she said.

Judge Zollars has also given Vance and the deputy clerk authority to issue PR bonds. Traffic cases will be handed over to the Department of Revenue per the judge’s request. Defendants who may be already arrested may be issued a PR bond so they are not detained on a municipal warrant. Vance is working with the Colorado State Patrol to determine any cases that fall in this category or that the city may have lost jurisdiction on.

The diversion program for juveniles will also undergo some changes. Vance said that instead of automatically scheduling juveniles who qualify for this program for court a packet will be sent to the juvenile and their parents requesting response and participation in the diversion program. If a response is not received within 10 days then the defendant will be scheduled for court.

Traffic infractions in general will also not automatically go to court. They will be handled in the front city office unless the defendant pleads not guilty.

Phone conferences will also now be allowed in court, according to Vance. “Previously we were not allowed to do phone conferences. Now that we have received confirmation it is allowed we will have more defendants show up because they will be able to do it by phone,” said Vance.

Community service will also be a more available option. Rob Vance, public works director, has agreed to allow people to be referred to community service to complete work for the city if it is viable. City Manager Forrest Neuerburg stated that an option might be to use the manpower to handle the weed issue throughout Monte Vista. The city will confer with Lintott about liability.

Vance also announced that the deputy clerk will now be taking over as the court clerk.

“I have to say that that me not having a lot of experience or knowledge of the court system I took a lot of learning from the previous judge (Dan Powell). I have to tell you that the court we had last week was the smoothest court I’ve ever seen (under Interim Judge Barbara Zollars.) Having the sentencings the same day as they're entering a plea seemed to have everything click and run very smooth. We had a lot of payments come through. The pretrial conferences that Karen was here to do were amazing to watch and the defendants were very grateful. Some of them were repeat offenders but a lot of them were first time offenders who were trying to make it and make those payments. They were resolved the same day. That was a huge plus for us and a lot of time saving for my department,” she said.