‘Barnacle’ bill heads to floor vote, lawmakers to vote on email service proposal

Listen to this article

The state Assembly will be voting Tuesday on legislation that would add to the types of devices cities and other local governments can use to immobilize vehicles for unpaid parking tickets.

The language of Wisconsin’s current law allows local governments only to use a “boot,” a device that can put on the wheel of a car to render it inoperable.

The change proposed in Assembly Bill 2 would allow for the use of other systems, including “Barnacles,” 16-pound devices that can be placed on the windshield of a car to immoblize it. Unlike a boot, a Barnacle can be removed once drivers call a number on the device and make arrangements to pay all their citations.

Lawmakers have introduced an amendment to the bill that specifies that only a “boot” or a device placed on windshields, such as the Barnacle, may be used by local governments to immobilize cars. On March 27, the Assembly Committee on Local government gave a favorable recommendation to the amended version of AB 2.

The full Assembly is now scheduled to take up AB at a floor session scheduled to start at 1 p.m. Tuesday. Should the legislation pass the Assembly, it would next need a vote in the Senate.

Later in the week, the state Assembly Committee on Judiciary will be hearing public testimony Thursday on AB 100, which proposes allowing judges in certain types of family-law cases to take judicial notice of certain online state records, including a parent’s conviction of a crime against a child and injunctions issued against one parent and initiated by another parent.

The hearing will be at 11 a.m. on Thursday in Room 300 Northeast in the state Capitol.

After that hearing, the committee will be voting on the following bills:

• AB 25 would let state prosecutors practice law to provide pro bono civil legal services. Current law prevents them from practicing law unless they are working on a civil case dating to the time before they became prosecutors, and then only if the work does not conflict with the interests of the prosecutor’s county.
• AB 58 would change a law governing how notice of claim against state employees or agencies must be served. Current law requires a person bringing an action against a state employee, agency or agent to send written notice of the action, using certified mail, to the state attorney general at his or her office in the state Capitol. AB 58 would allow the AG also be served in person.
• AB 59 would allow papers and other pleadings to be served by email, as long as all the parties involved consent and provide an email address.