The Vandalia City Council has approved an ordinance that will raise the fines for possession of cannabis tickets written in the city. During the council’s meeting Monday night, Vandalia Police Chief Jeff Ray presented the council with a memo from the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office which informing the city that possession of cannabis less than 10 grams is now a civil law violation and outlining how those tickets would be prosecuted with the city taking care of those written by city police.
Ray said his issue with that is that the city would be losing money having to prosecute the tickets with the set fine of $100 that would not cover their court costs.
City Attorney Ryan Connor has seen the same issue in other area municipalities and drafted a new ordinance based on what he had written for those towns that would cover the city’s costs.
The ordinance was presented to the council that would set the fine for possession of cannabis of less than 10 grams at no less than $500 and no more than $750. Being put to a roll call vote, the ordinance was passed by a vote of 6-1 with alderwoman Dorothy Crawford casting the lone no vote.