Not so fast, ex-county official tells authorities after speeding ticket

Should someone be ticketed for speeding when the speed-limit sign is missing and even the police chief isn't sure what the legal limit is?

Last week, former Anoka County Board Chairman Dennis Berg was pulled over for driving 43 miles per hour on Hwy. 169 in Champlin. The ticket says he was in a 30 mph zone.

At that point, Berg really shifted into high gear.

There was no speed limit posted in the immediate area, and in contacting half a dozen state, county and city officials, he cited a Minnesota statute saying that the limit on all trunk highways is 55 unless otherwise posted.

"We just assumed it was 30 miles per hour," said Champlin Police Chief David Schwarze, who was among those contacted by Berg -- along with Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, the Champlin city administrator and the Minnesota Department of Transportation, among others.

As it turns out, the actual speed limit, which was established in 1976, is 35 mph, and until recently there was a sign to alert the 48,000 motorists who travel that stretch of road daily. That sign was to be restored Friday, said MnDOT traffic engineer Lars Impola, who didn't know it was gone until Berg contested his ticket.

"If we hadn't done a [traffic] study on it, the speed limit there would be 55 miles per hour," Impola said. But a study was done, he emphasized. "You'd know it by the sign."

'Blackmail fee'

Berg was further irked, he said, when he learned that instead of contesting the $142 ticket, he could settle the matter with the city of Champlin and have his "driving record protected ... have the slate wiped clean," for $150.

"I cannot bring myself to pay the blackmail fee," Berg wrote to Freeman. He also said in his letter that the Champlin Police budget for 2011 includes "a fine revenue quota of $300,000."

The Hennepin County attorney's office doesn't deal with parking tickets, a spokesman for the office said.

Champlin City Administrator Bret Heitkamp said, "We don't have administrative fines in Champlin."

Berg acknowledged later that "quota" was perhaps not the right word.

Heitkamp and MnDOT's Impola both say they are grateful to Berg for noting the missing sign, which Impola says may have been hit by a snowplow. But if Berg wants to contest his ticket, he'll have to take his case to court.

"I've maintained all along that I was not in a 30 miles-per-hour-zone -- and I've been proven right," Berg said. "But I'll pay the fine. I've always said we should hold our public officials accountable. But I can't afford to take a day off, go to Minneapolis and pay $12 for parking."