Your "Ticket" to Donate?

This is a fantastic opportunity that a Fargo Judge is utilizing to the best of his ability -

A Fargo judge says he has no qualms about a program he’s starting that will trim $20 from the fines of people who commit a noncriminal traffic offense – if they give blood to a local blood bank.

The program, called “Your Ticket to Donate,” starts Monday.

Municipal Court Judge Tom Davies said Thursday that he has the discretion to structure the fines as he feels is appropriate.

Here, the good outweighs losing a few bucks in the city’s budget, he said.

“We’re all exposed to a possible need for blood,” Davies said. “It’s a total community benefit.”

Noncriminal traffic violators will get a one-time credit of $20 on their fine if they get a donor verification card from United Blood Services in Fargo within 14 days of being cited.

The credit also applies to violators who try to give blood but are turned away.

Davies is not worried that other nonprofits might be jealous of the boost for the blood bank.

“The blood program has always been one of my favorites. … We’re a community court. Reasonable people can differ in whether it’s a good idea or bad idea,” Davies said.

“There’s always going to be somebody who’s going to say, ‘Why didn’t you do it for someone else?’ The bottom line is, because I have to make the call, and this is the call I’ve made,” he said.

According to the city’s finance office, Municipal Court collected $1,681,193 in revenue in 2008. So far this year, the court has collected $849,646.

Davies said he had no idea how many errant drivers might go for the $20 deal, but he doubts that the number would get as high as 25 or 30 percent.

“If you save a life … that’s pretty cheap price to pay,” Davies said.

City Administrator Pat Zavoral said he hadn’t heard about the program.

He joked that a recent court ruling cutting Fargo’s traffic fines could make it a popular program.

“Given the traffic fine fees, does that mean we’ll be paying people?” Zavoral said. “If there’s an incentive there for people to slow down, we’ll try it, I guess.”

Jennifer Bredahl, donor recruitment director of United Blood Services, said the timing is great.

“We’re finishing up a month where we’re hanging on by a thread,” Bredahl said.

“I’m not pushing for more traffic tickets, but it will be a nice boost,” she said. Type O negative, B negative and O positive blood is in short supply, she said.

Davies said each driver gets one break. Points still accumulate on a driver’s record, he said. But he won’t put a time limit on the program.

Judy Green, president of United Way of Cass Clay, said it’s unlikely other non-profits would be unhappy.

“I just think he was so creative with this, and it sounds like a wonderful philanthropic gesture. Good for him. And thank you for caring about our community,” she said.

Davies ran a similar program in the early 1970s.

However, by the late 1970s, the onset of AIDS caused blood banks to tighten their rules to exclude donors with potentially risky profiles, he said. The national agency in charge of the local blood bank withdrew from the program, Davies said.

Since then, every few years, he’s asked if they’d like to try it again, finally getting the OK earlier this year from United Blood Services’ parent firm, Blood Systems of Scottsdale, Ariz.

(from: http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/250502/)