Gavel (Credit: Brian Turner/Flickr)
Brick has set up a program to collect outstanding municipal court fines under a state program that allows the township to employe the services of a collections agency at no cost to taxpayers.
Mayor John Ducey said at its peak, the municipal court had more than $500,000 in outstanding fines that were not paid. Recently, a first round of collections letters have gone out and scofflaws, in turn, have begun to pay up.
“The letters have all gone out, and the collection has begun,” Ducey said. “They’re collecting a lot of the money, which is great.”
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An exact figure on how much money has yet to come in was not immediately available.
Under legislation enacted by the state legislature in recent years, municipalities are now able to use collections agencies to track down those who owe outstanding fines. Under the program, Business Administrator Joanne Bergin said, anyone who owes a fine must pay the entire fine. The collections agency tacks a fee onto the fine, which also must be paid. The township then receives the full fine owed and the agency makes money through its own, separate fee.
Last week, the township renewed a contract with Pioneer Credit Recovery, of Arcade, N.Y., to act as its collections agent. The contract with Pioneer will continue through June 11, 2016.
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