State Senator: Use Denver Boot To Help City Collect Debts

By Chuck Sudo in News on Feb 27, 2013 10:30PM

A proposed bill by an Illinois state senator would drastically change how Chicago and other cities in Illinois can collect on debts owed to it by residents if it passes in Springfield.

State Sen. Ira Silverstein (D - Chicago), who’s also the husband of 50th Ward Ald. Debra Silverstein, quietly introduced Senate Bill 36, which would grant municipalities the authority to apply Denver boots to the vehicles of anyone found at fault of a court judgment over money owed to a city. The bill’s language states a debtor would have 24 hours to come up with the money or a municipality would be allowed to apply the boot, impound and sell the debtor’s vehicle after 21 days to cover the costs of the debt. Under current Chicago law, this can only be done for money owed from traffic fines.

Adam Braun, a lobbyist friend of Silverstein’s who represents collection agencies, brought the bill to Silverstein’s attention. We're surprised Braun didn't write into the legislation that the city could use telemarketers to harass debtors over the phone.

Here’s more on the nigh-Draconian legislation from Crain’s Greg Hinz:

A Springfield insider who pointed me to the bill says it lacks procedural safeguards and potentially could subject hundreds of thousands of people to losing their cars. For instance, that source says, the bill only requires that debtors receive return-request mail notice of the enforcement action - not that they be physically served.

Mr. Silverstein replies that those involved already would have been notified of court action prior to a ruling against them. “You have a judge supervising this. So there's more protection.”

Beyond that, only civil judgments could be enforced by booting - not rulings by the city's squad of administrative law judges, who are known for ruling in City Hall's favor most of the time.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office has a copy of the bill and is reviewing it, but wouldn’t comment further. Silverstein is already backtracking from the bill, saying the 24-hour notice is “a bit harsh” and that the bill needs further revisions.

This isn’t the first piece of odd legislation Silverstein introduced in Springfield in recent weeks. He also sponsored, and later withdrew, the Internet Posting Removal Act. This bill would have required website administrators, upon request, to remove anonymous comments unless the people who wrote them agreed to have their names attached to the comments and revealed their Internet Service Protocol and home addresses. Silverstein argued that bill was inspired by a similar anti-bullying bill that failed in New York last year but said he would pull the bill after a litany of complaints from free speech advocates.