by Kristina Gabalski
The Village of Brockport may soon have a solution to what officials call its “parking ticket problem.”
Trustee Margaret Blackman presented the village board with a proposal during its regular meeting February 14.
“I’ve been sleeping, eating and breathing parking tickets for the past two weeks,” Blackman told fellow board members.
She recommended hiring Fundamental Business Service, a collection agency based in Hempstead, NY, to collect parking ticket fines.
Blackman said that according to some estimates, the village is currently collecting less than 60 percent of the parking tickets that are written. A collection agency should help the village collect at least 90 percent, she said.
The village currently receives an annual payment from the Sweden Town Court for parking tickets paid – $29,260 in 2011, Blackman said.
“We do not know how many tickets this represents, what level of fines, or when those paid tickets date from,” Blackman stated in her proposal. “Boxes of delinquent unpaid tickets have collected for years. The Sweden Town Court has neither the time nor incentive to go after unpaid tickets that belong to the village, much less track current ones with the level of information the village would like. This is not a new situation; it goes back at least to the 1970s.”
Fundamental Business Service has been in business for 28 years and is experienced in working with Justice Courts, with the core of their case management and processing work being parking tickets, Blackman said.
“They would document and account for all current parking tickets, pursue all recent tickets more than 30 days overdue, as well as all tickets dating back to 2006,” she said.
The system would make it easy, Trustee Blackman explained, for the court to submit monthly dispositions of parking tickets for the village to the Office of the State Comptroller – which is required – and the village should begin receiving monthly statements on parking dispositions from the Office of the State Comptroller. The village would also begin receiving a monthly, rather than an annual, check from the Town of Sweden.
Blackman explained that the agency sends out letters to vehicle owners when tickets are 30, 60 and 90 days in arrears. “The agency is registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles,” Blackman said and can put a hold on the re-registration of a vehicle if fines are not paid.
“There are no start-up costs, no costs for database management, no costs for notification letters,” Trustee Blackman said. “When delinquent, and only delinquent fines are collected, the agency takes 30 percent of what is collected. The agency bills the municipality that hires the firm.”
“I think everybody will be happy,” Trustee Blackman said. Sweden Town Justice Robert Connors “has been extremely helpful in moving this forward. This is a win-win solution for everybody.”
