The City of Kamloops hopes to save money with a new adjudication process when people dispute a bylaw ticket.

The updated Municipal Ticket Information bylaw was given first, second and third reading by city council last week, and the bylaw was adopted this afternoon.

Bylaw services manager Tammy Blundell says paying for an adjudicator to handle disputes in a civic building, instead of a paying lawyer in a courtroom, will cut costs significantly.

“And having to pay for the court proceedings, having to pay for the lawyers’ time, pay for staff time to attend as a witness. Whereas an adjudicating process – hiring an adjudicator $100 dollars an hour let’s say – and the person who was issued the ticket sitting at the table, and possibly the enforcement officer who issued that fine.”

She says there are six enforcement methods for serving tickets in the updated MTI bylaw.

“When we have a file that we have to investigate, we go out, investigate it. We’ve had lots of nuisance properties; specific properties that we haven’t gained compliance on. And over a number of years, months, whatever the situation is, we have the ability to apply any one of those six tools to that property owner.”

Kamloops mayor Ken Christian points out the changes do not impact any fines in Kamloops nor the value of those fines.

“I think as we look to January 1st and we look to a revamp of our Community Services division, I think starting with the MTI would be a good starting point. It does not change any fine in the City of Kamloops. It’s simply a mechanism by which those fines which we already have on the books will be served.”