When a ticket is issued, the defendant has 30 days to respond with their plea. After 31 days with no response, the fine doubles. After 61 days, the fine triples. After 91 days, the village adds an extra $20 to the fee. Prior to the recent policy change, this is where the court’s action would need to stop. But now after 120 days, a final notice is sent out and the defendant has the option to go into court, plead guilty or ignore it and have a judgment filed against them.
Trustee Kessel hopes that it does not get to that point. “Our intent is that we inspire people to pay for it before the judgment. There are some people that will never be responsible, but they do have the opportunity to take care of it.”
Stefan Vansicklen, a visitor to the village found the new policy to be unfair to those who cannot pay off their debts. “Taking it right out of their paycheck is too harsh,” he said. “Because they might need it for something else.”
Port Jefferson Village Court uses an outside collection agency, Fundamental Business Service Inc. in Hempstead to manage outstanding tickets. “We started using them about two years ago because we had a lot of outstanding tickets,” Senior Court Clerk Christine Wood said. The first action against outstanding tickets was to hold an amnesty program two years ago. “Everyone with outstanding tickets had the option to come in and pay off their debt with a discount.”
Not only do the outstanding tickets cost the village money, so does the collection process. The Fundamental Business Service takes a 30 percent fee from the village for the money they collect from outstanding tickets. If the ticket is dismissed, the agency does not collect.
The village will continue to use the collection agency; they send the tickets to them after the first thirty days.
Wood presented the idea to file judgments to the Mayor and Board of Trustees as a way to retrieve the uncollected funds. Kessel felt the policy change was a good option. “We’re not collecting on these tickets anyhow, so we might as well try. There really is no risk to the village.”
But other Long Island towns don’t have the same problems collecting from parking violators. Wood worked with other local village courts, such as the Village of Patchogue, to help bring a conclusion to the outstanding tickets. “Patchogue did this and it seemed to work for them,” Wood said. Debra Newham, the senior court clerk in the Village of Patchogue, said that it is very rare that the outstanding tickets get so far that judgments need to be filed.
This is exactly what Wood hopes to accomplish with the new policy. “We hope that a notice saying that the judgment will be filed with the County Clerk will have more impact than a notice from the village,” she said.
