Unlicensed drivers' cars to be impounded under new Chicago ordinance

[J. Mujica]

Unlicensed drivers' cars to be impounded under new Chicago ordinance
To get cars back, motorists would have to pay $665

Tribune Reporter

November 19, 2009

Billing it as a way to improve public safety, the Chicago City Council
approved a plan Wednesday aimed at forcing unlicensed motorists off
the street by impounding their cars.

But drivers could get their cars back if they fill city coffers with
$665 -- a $500 fine and $165 in towing costs.

Ald. Thomas Allen, 38th, acknowledged his ordinance, which takes
effect Jan. 1, isn't perfect. But he said it's a strong deterrent for
scofflaws who were repeat offenders among the 22,904 citations Chicago
police issued last year for driving with a suspended license.

"You're not going to eradicate the 22,000-plus cases of people getting
pulled over for this," Allen said. "But if they have to pay this $665
every time, it's going to give them pause."

The new rule gained momentum after Allen brought up the case of James
E. Cox, who was cited more than a dozen times with driving without a
valid license but kept driving, records show. Cox is now charged with
causing the Oct. 21 wreck that killed Kim Brown, a 27-year-old
pregnant mother of five, as she stood on a West Side sidewalk.

Allen pointed out Cox would have racked up thousands of dollars in
fines to keep his car on the road before the accident that killed
Brown. "He would have thought twice before driving again, facing those
costs," Allen said.

In other action Wednesday:

-- Aldermen voted to allow a $16 million payment from the city to
Bensenville as part of an agreement to get the village to drop its
opposition to O'Hare International Airport expansion.

Mayor Richard Daley said the end to the land fight will result in an
economic boon to Chicago and Bensenville as development accompanies
the airport expansion.

"All the property in and around O'Hare field deals with future
development," Daley said at a City Hall news conference. "It's very
important to them, their tax base and jobs. Also, it's an amenity for
us, because we want businesses to be much closer to O'Hare field."

-- The council adopted a resolution urging Congress to pass
legislation that would allow some undocumented immigrant students to
earn conditional residency.

The push locally was prompted by the case of Rigoberto Padilla, 21, a
University of Illinois at Chicago student. He faces a Dec. 16
deportation to Mexico after he was pulled over for suspicion of
driving under the influence, convicted of a misdemeanor traffic
violation and reported to federal Immigration authorities.

Ald. George Cardenas, 12th, said he co-sponsored the resolution
because the so-called DREAM Act could help fix America's broken
Immigration system by protecting hard workers like Padilla.

-- Daley introduced an ordinance to use $35 million from the city's
controversial parking meter lease to provide property tax relief to
Chicago homeowners. Based on a pledge in his proposed budget, Daley
said the program would cut property taxes for about 400,000 city
homeowners by an average of around $150.

-- The council also approved federal prosecutor Joseph Ferguson as the
city's new inspector general, an office responsible for investigating
corruption in city government.

jeby...@tribune.com

[alberto bocanegra]

That unlicensed motorists impounding is another attack to the undocumented.  It a type of attack I call in other words pimping the undocumented community.  We need to do something Mujica.

> Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:58:55 -0800
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