It's with good reason. The town of Fenton has a population of 226 people. It's the size of about 20 blocks, and the major thing that helps keep the town running is its collection of fines and forfeitures from traffic tickets. In 2022 alone, it raked in a whopping $1.3 million on traffic fines alone.
That's where the mayor is the judge comes in, because these traffic fines were collected through the "mayor's court", which is a special court that can only be found in Louisiana and Ohio. Mainly, it processes traffic tickets, which surprisingly come up to the thousands each year. From the collections gathered, the town is able to support itself and pay for the salaries of the people in the courtroom. But the mayor's court has been challenged for its fairness in passing judgment given the conflict of interest that having the mayor as the judge brings.
So, in order to investigate on the matter, a team from Pro Publica and journalists from WVUE were sent to Fenton to look into what goes on in the mayor's courts proceedings, and how the traffic cases were handled. Check out their full report here.
(Image credit: Tingey Injury Law Firm/Unsplash)