FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. - Fairfax County is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars each year by failing to collect fines on unpaid parking tickets.
    The county has a backlog of more than 63,500 unpaid parking tickets totaling nearly $2.9 million in fines that have not yet reached county coffers.
    That's an improvement over the situation a year ago, when the county's Department of Tax Administration reported nearly 75,000 outstanding tickets. But it's not enough for some members of the county Board of Supervisors who want to know why it's taking so long to reduce the heavy backlog.
    ``That's $3 million in a budget year in which we are crying for extra revenue," said Supervisor Gerald E. Connolly, D-Providence District.
    Now, DTA has decided to hire a private collection agency to pressure scofflaws into paying the tickets, action Alexandria took seven years ago when its own collection efforts were foundering.
    Under state law, cities and counties have only three years to collect a parking ticket fine before the violation is wiped off the books. That means the county is losing thousands of dollars every month as older tickets become permanently uncollectible.
    For example, about 8,200 parking tickets issued in 1998 expired last year before the county could act to collect fines or obtain legal judgments against scofflaws who refused to pay. Total loss for the county: $370,000.
    Part of the problem is outdated technology in DTA, which is responsible for collecting the fines. DTA Director Kevin Greenlief said his office experienced major problems because its computer system was not Y2K compliant and became dysfunctional at the end of 1999.
    Installation of a new computer system to process the tickets lasted from November 1999 to November 2000. During that time, normal collection activity slowed considerably and the backlog grew, Greenlief said. Some files were lost in transit between the old and new systems. Greenlief said his department cannot track how much money in unpaid fines was lost in previous years.
    Getting some violators to pay tickets can take a lot of effort. A standard parking ticket costs $25, plus a $20 late fee if not paid within 30 days. More notices are sent at 60 and 90 days after the ticket is issued, but no further penalties are assessed. That encourages some offenders to simply ignore them.
    A list of the county's top 10 scofflaws issued earlier this month shows the worst offender had 87 unpaid parking tickets. It's up to DTA's 40-person staff to track down violators and start the process of placing liens on wages or bank accounts. That's not always the first priority for a staff also responsible for collecting real estate, property and business taxes.
    ``We always try to do the best job we can with the resources we have," Greenlief said.
    But Connolly calls the explanations a ``series of excuses that are a rationalization for them not doing their job." He said Greenlief never informed the board about the computer problems or a lack of staff resources to collect fines.
    Connolly also criticized DTA for not being aggressive enough in its collection efforts. He has urged the department to get more orders to place immobilizing devices, or ``boots," on vehicles when their owners have several unpaid tickets. Greenlief responds that many orders to boot scofflaws' vehicles are returned unfulfilled by the sheriff's department because deputies cannot locate them.
    With the new computer system now fully operational, Greenlief said, the overall collection rate has improved to 67 percent.
    ``It's not as much as I'd like to see," Greenlief said. ``I'll be the first to admit we can do better."
    To improve the collection rate, Greenlief said his department will contract with a private collection agency as early as next month to handle much of the process.
    Other jurisdictions in the region made the decision to go private a long time ago. Alexandria anticipated problems with its computer software and decide to hire an outside collection firm in 1994.
    ``Our software was getting pretty old and we were going to have to spend a lot of time rewriting software and getting the system up to date," said Daniel Neckel, Alexandria's director of finance.
    Neckel said the collection rate has held steady at about 70 percent, not including scofflaws against whom legal action is proceeding. That is substantially higher than what the city was collecting in-house.
    ``When we went to an outside company, we had a big backlog and the company in the first year was able to clean up the backlog," Neckel said.
    Asked why Fairfax County has waited until now to hire an outside firm, Greenlief said DTA was ``so focused on getting our existing system stabilized" that it did not have time to consider the idea.
    ``Could we have done it sooner? Sure," Greenlief said. ``Do I wish we had done it sooner? Sure."

Prince George's Journal

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002