Drivers who get caught speeding or blowing through a stop sign typically face not just a ticket, but also a blemished driving record and higher auto insurance rates. However, the City of Powell is now offering some lead-foots and other offenders a chance to get their tickets tossed: If qualifying drivers pay their fine, an extra $70 fee and complete a three-hour online traffic school, their municipal court citation will be dismissed.

“It’s geared towards allowing the public a second chance to not have that show up on their record,” City Attorney Alex Rolin explained at a Nov. 4 council meeting.

“The goal is education and awareness,” Rolin added, “so that way we hopefully get citizens who are slowing down, stopping for stop signs, using blinkers, increasing the safety of the community.”

Powell Police Chief Jim Rhea supports the new program, seeing it as a way to potentially lessen the punitive side of a citation and increase traffic safety awareness.

“It’s another good resource for the community,” Rhea said in an interview.

City councilors agreed, as they unanimously approved a contract with CJS Limited Liability Company, a Wyoming-based firm that operates StreetRules.com. Powell joined dozens of other communities on the online platform, including over 20 in Wyoming.

The City of Cody signed on a year ago, and Rolin, who’s a deputy city attorney there, said the program has been “a very attractive option” for people with commercial drivers licenses. While the number of defendants in Cody’s program has varied, she said things picked up in the summer tourist season, with about 10 monthly enrollees in the online course.

Cody leaders are also charging $70 on top of the ticket, though the fee varies around the state. For example, courts in Albany, Laramie, Lincoln and Natrona counties are charging only $34.95 for the Street Rules course — and that includes the ticket.

Under the city’s contract with CJS, the company gets to keep $19.85 of each participant’s fee, forwarding the rest of the money to the City of Powell. That means the city stands to net an extra $50.15 per participant. The city’s share could grow if 15 or more defendants are referred to the school in a given month, as CJS offers a modest “volume discount.”

Over the past year, an average of 16 defendants passed through Powell’s municipal court each month. However, Rolin indicated that figure could increase due to the new traffic school, with some tickets potentially shifting from the state-run circuit court to the city-run municipal court.

Secret criteria, discussion

Not all defendants are eligible for the diversion program, and whether a person can participate is ultimately up to police and the city attorney. There are specific criteria, but the city is keeping them confidential.

At the meeting, when Councilman Floyd Young sought confirmation that offenses involving drugs or alcohol would be excluded, Rolin responded, “that’s kind of something I’d like to keep in executive session.”

In a later interview with the Tribune, Rolin said she has concerns that some people might try to “take advantage” of the criteria if they were made public. She also said she doesn’t want the criteria to discourage people from inquiring about the school, since she retains discretion.

“I encourage everybody to call and ask if they’re eligible,” Rolin said.

The city attorney had initially pitched the council on the traffic school during a closed-door executive session on Oct. 21; councilors had cited an exception to Wyoming’s open meetings laws that allows governments to privately meet “to consider or receive any information classified as confidential by law.”

Rolin told the Tribune that, since it was the rare proposal to come directly from her department, the half-hour discussion was protected by attorney-client privilege.

With most presentations going through other staff, “it’s very few and far between that this is going to be an issue,” Rolin said.

The first public consideration of the traffic school came at the Nov. 4 meeting, when initially just Rolin presented the CJS contract and asked the councilors to decide how long they wanted the sessions to run and how much they wanted to charge.

Mayor John Wetzel responded by saying that he believed the council needed to have more of a conversation.

During October’s executive session, “we went and discussed … what we were or weren’t allowed to [publicly] discuss, but we haven’t in public discussed what traffic school is,” Wetzel said, “and I would like to have that conversation now out in the public.”

Rolin then explained the program and how it would work. Following the council’s blessing, the city’s traffic school went live in November, though Rolin said this week that she has not yet received any inquiries from potential participants.