LADUE, Mo. – While last year’s SB 5 the sought to reform the practice of “policing for profit” winds its way to the Missouri Supreme Court for their biggest civil rights cast in a generation there are some municipal judges who have been working to reform the system from within. Thirty-five year veteran municipal judge and attorney Frank Vatterott started pushing for municipal court reform long before national attention focused on the St. Louis area.
“There were a number of cities, but not as many as some say, that had substantial issues in their courts,” said Vatterott.
Vatterott chairs a committee of judges, called the St. Louis County Municipal Court Improvement Commission, to unify and reform traffic courts. The committee explored various reforms, from payment plans to abatement to uniform fines and bonds, and improving judge education.
The committee formed in spring 2014 after judges in the area were contacted with concerns from St. Louis University Law School professors.
“The dean of the law school sent me a letter and I realized right away that there was a problem,” Vatterott said. “We formed a committee and did a lot of homework. Bottom line is, within 3 months, we had all 81 courts signing off on new orders.”
However, Vatterott started realizing the problems a decade ago.
“One municipality had a lot of speeding…and those tickets brought in $3 million per year,” said Vatterott. “Some people suspect the reason was replacing income. Some of those little courts, I always suspected. …Maybe 9-10 years ago, it started to get uglier in some of these small towns with these smaller tax bases. There were judges who told me that they were under pressure to fine people more.”
Vatterott saw first hand how some cities depended on their municipal courts for revenue when he was a judge in St. Ann.
“The only mayor who ever said anything to me about it wanted me to fine more,” Vatterott said. “I wouldn’t do that, so I got fired from the city of St. Ann.”
The judge’s long time experience is in St. Louis County, starting with Vinita Terrace – where the small court was held in a gas station – and now as presiding judge in Overland, as well as provisional judge in Bridgeton, Ladue, and Fenton.
Vatterott continues to lead in grassroots reform, leading classes in the county, and throughout the state, on new laws and programs, hoping to update fellow judges on the new policies.
“No one was really teaching us about the new laws,” Vatterott said. “I also did that because not all courts were paying attention to rules and court costs.”
Vatterott’s ongoing municipal court reform work has been recognized by state reform leaders, whose work he follows.
“Frank worked hard to bring the municipal judges to the table and address injustices in our municipal courts,” said SB 5 sponsor Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Glendale.
Rachael Herndon was the editor at The Missouri Times and also produced This Week in Missouri Politics, published Missouri Times Magazine, and co-hosted the #MoLeg podcast. She joined The Missouri Times in 2014, returning to political reporting after working as a campaign and legislative staffer.
Rachael studied at the University of Missouri – Columbia. She lives in Jefferson City with her husband, Brandon, and their two children.
