Former Milton Township Supervisor Signed Illegal Traffic Enforcement Contract –

Milton Township, Ill. (ECWd) –

Just as the case with Thornton Township’s fake and illegal police vehicles, resulting in their license plates being confiscated by the Secretary of State Police, Milton Township is likewise not authorized to conduct policing “traffic enforcement” operations, and is not authorized to issue citations for traffic offenses.

That didn’t stop former Milton Township Supervisor John Monino. He is alleged to have signed a contract, without taking it to the township board for a vote, to authorize a private company to police, conduct traffic enforcement operations, issue citations for traffic infractions, appoint a hearing officer, and conduct adjudication hearings – all in the name of the township. Think about this for a second: a township violates state law to issue fake citations to people allegedly violating traffic laws.

Milton Township has a scam warning on its website about these citations; however, we are not convinced it was a “scam” based on the words used in attorney Pat Bond’s letter to DDSP, which points to a “discussion” Bond had with them, which generated the letter voiding the contract. It appears Milton Township is attempting to fend off any embarrassment, rather than admitting to the truth, by labeling it as a “scam” on their website

Thankfully, Milton Township’s attorney, Pat Bond, looked at this issue and wrote a letter to the contractor declaring the “Distracted Driver Safety Program Automated Traffic Enforcement Services Agreement” void for the following reasons:

• The contract was never voted on by the board
• Townships lack the authority to conduct traffic enforcement

What’s in the contract? Here are some of the more notable provisions:

• Distracted Driver Safety Program, LLC, Automated Traffic Enforcement – We could find no reference in the Secretary of State’s online database of any business with this, or a similar name, authorized to conduct business in the state. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are not authorized, only that they are not listed in the online database as of last week
• Township authorized DDSP to issue citations for at least 11 separate driving offenses listed under Paragraph 1, on page 2 of the contract
• Township agreed to provide driver or vehicle data to the contractor on a daily basis
• Contractor would provide photo and video evidence of infractions
• Contractor shall provide full transparency (they must have left it up to the township to deny FOIA requests for this information)
• Contractor to attend adjudication hearings, on behalf of the township, for contested citations
• The contractor appoints an adjudication officer on behalf of the township
• Contractor to install anti-driving devices on vehicle for nonpayment of citations
• Township gets 25% of the fines issued with the citations
• All the “donated revenue” (from contractor) to the township must be used for the Milton Township Food Pantry and the Milton Township Pet Food Pantry – Milton Township does not operate a “Pet Food Bank” and the people’s food bank is operated by a separate nonprofit (see FOIA response HERE)
• THIS IS A REVENUE GENERATION PROGRAM FOR MILTON TOWNSHIP
• The entire contract is proprietary information of DDSP and all information disclosed in the contract is confidential and proprietary to DDSP – oh, and “Breach of Contractor’s patented, copyrighted proprietary information, intellectual property, etc., shall be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law (read a copy of the contract HERE)

Just when you think a public official can’t do anything crazier than has already been attempted somewhere else, along comes Milton Township.

Obviously, the entire contract is unlawful, unenforceable, and void – even if the entire township board voted to approve it.

We suggest any person who received a citation and paid a fine to seek recovery of their funds from Milton Township, and we suggest Milton Township pay back those fines by filing a claim against the former Supervisor’s Bond.

Jeff Castle, a former Milton Township Trustee, was the first to report on this DDSP contract and published a Press Release HERE.