Amnesty program nets Valley Stream $200K

Valley Stream gave drivers a chance to clear up those old unpaid parking tickets with little penalty, and thousands took advantage of the opportunity. And the village brought in more than $200,000 in revenue.

Village Justice Bob Bogle recommended the amnesty program, which was approved by the Board of Trustees last summer. Anyone with an outstanding parking ticket dating back as far as 2003 was offered a chance to pay only the original fine plus a $20 administrative fee. An 8-year-old $35 ticket, Bogle said, could grow to as much as $250 with late fees.

Those penalties were forgiven with the amnesty program, and, Bogle said, that is why he believes it was so successful. The village court closed out 6,350 of about 9,500 outstanding parking tickets. “I’m very happy with the results,” he said.

Overall, the program brought in $275,000, though about $73,000 of that covered the fee for a collection service as well as postage and paper costs. The village netted about $202,000 in revenue.

Bogle said that the village court offers the amnesty program roughly every seven years. “That’s when there’s a sufficient backup to warrant this,” he said.

Once the late penalties begin to pile up, Bogle explained, people are less likely to pay their tickets, so the amnesty program gives the village a chance to collect some money while giving drivers the chance to clear up outstanding violations. Bogle said that people who rack enough unpaid parking tickets can be designated by the court as “scofflaws,” and can be prevented from re-registering their vehicles.

He explained that the program was designed to be convenient. Anyone with an outstanding ticket received a letter indicating the new fine, and all they had to do was send in a check. “We made it as easy as possible for the public,” Bogle said. “We want to close out all of our dead files.”

The program ran from Oct. 15 through Jan. 21, and Bogle said that the court received a steady flow of payments. The last time there was an amnesty program, in 2002, he added, there was a big influx of payments in the beginning that quickly tailed off.

He also noted that because of the economy, people likely wanted to clear up tickets for the lower cost. “It’s a different world now,” Bogle said. “People are economically hurting and they wanted to take advantage of the good nature of the program.”

It was so successful, Bogle said, that he extended it a few weeks. Toward the end, he and court staffers visited the three local Long Island Rail Road stations — Valley Stream, Gibson and Westwood — to hand out fliers about it. Bogle said that the members of his staff — Jesus Duvert, Kathy Kleinschmidt, LuAnn Tangney and Tina Dell’Anno — worked hard on the program.

The village’s deputy treasurer, Michael Fox, said there are a lot of possible uses for an extra $202,000. The first to come to mind, Fox said, is paying all the overage costs from the winter storms, as the village has exceeded its budget for overtime. “Ideally,” he said, “I’ll be able to apply that revenue toward the snow.”

It could also help the village close out the year with a surplus, Fox said. The money from the amnesty program was not anticipated when the 2010-11 budget was created. This year’s projected revenue for the village court is $1.6 million, but Fox said that is always an estimate because there is no way to know how many tickets will be issued and how many people will pay.

He noted that while the $202,000 was money the village should have collected years ago, it is good to finally have those funds in the coffers. “The money in our pocket today,” he said, “is better than an expectation of money in the future.”

Bogle said that anyone who didn’t take advantage of the amnesty will still have the opportunity to fight their ticket in village court. There is no guarantee, however, that the fine will be reduced. “We’ve already given the carrot,” he said. “Now this is the stick.”