Wouldn't you think being a Municipal Judge would be an interesting job?

I think it seems interesting.  For Municipal Judge Bill Severin, it must have been interesting for him. I hope. He's been at it now for over 40 years. The City of Bismarck sent this out in a news release today.

When the 2024 elections roll around and Severin’s name is no longer on the ballot, one of the community’s long-standing institutions will come to a close, as the Clerk of Court Kathy Wangler will also be retiring. Wangler has served the municipal court for 42 years.

I'm glad to say I haven't had the opportunity to ever meet this clerk/judge team. Because who wants to meet on the wrong side of the bench?  You may have been in front of him first as a teen and you're a grandparent now. They're still registering tickets and citations. The numbers are staggering. I wanted this to be the headline...

Can Retiring Bismarck Judge Get To 900,000 Parking Tickets?

I'm sure retiring Municipal Judge Bill Severine doesn't care one hoot about that number. Although, goodness sake- that's a lot of citations/tickets. This was also on the news release

By the end of 2021, Municipal Court had dealt with more than 550,000 citations and about 870,000 parking tickets since 1983, a few months after Severin first became an alternate judge at the age of 32 on October 19, 1982. He would be elected to the Municipal Judge position in 1984.

Sooo...at the end of 2021, there were 870,000 parking tickets. Bill became a Municipal Judge in 1984.

Smart kids help me the not-so-smart kid.

So it's a 37-year stretch.  Dividing 870,000 tickets by 37 years gets you an average of around 23.5 thousand tickets annually. That's only going to be 893K adding this year.

Which may not be enough. Unless all of Bismarck goes #crazyparkingforBill

Let's give our thanks to Municipal Judge Bill Severine and Clerk of Court Kathy Wangler for putting up with generations of shenanigans. Seriously, it wasn't our fault.


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