Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Council Approves Parking Ticket Collection Contract, Police Expansion, and Senior Tax Relief

Parking Scofflaws Beware!
The Council approved, by a vote of 8-4, a plan to hire an outside company to implement a parking ticket and billing technology. The company, Complus Data, will charge the city a monthly fee of $1700, and 20% of all past due tickets and 8% of all tickets going forward.

Geen Thazampallath told the Council that the current system is antiquated: tickets are written by hand, and manually entered into the data base. He said that the collection rate on tickets was only about 60%, because if the city does not already have an address on the car's owner, then it was impossible to contact the person responsible for the ticket. He said that if the collection rate could be increased from 60% to 90%, then the city could reap over $100,000 per year, "We believe we have hundreds of thousands of dollars of unpaid tickets."

The Four Council members voting against the resolution expressed concerns that the city was not getting the best possible deal from Complus Data. Councilwomen Hope Kasper and Mary Bartolotta, in particular, wanted more details and documentation about the current rate of ticket collection, and what could be expected from the company in the future.

There was also considerable discussion over whether the Parking Department could use the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) to help track down those with outstanding parking tickets. Thazampallath, backed up by City Attorney Tim Lynch, said that the NCIC database could only be used by Parking officials if they were certified police officers, employed by the Police Department.

Police Force to Expand
The Council unanimously approved the addition of three new police officers, one of them a Sergeant. Councilman Santangelo said that Middletown should have a force of 120 officers, and that this was an important step towards that direction.

Senior Tax Relief
The Common Council unanimously approved the Senior Tax Relief programs proposed by Mayor Dan Drew, and endorsed last week by the Finance and Government Operations Committee. Ed Dypa said that a plan like this was proposed 6 years ago, and he praised Drew for making it finally happen, "I appreciate it and ask the council to look at the ordinance favorably.”

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does Middletown really need more police officers? What they really need is better management of their existing officers. It's time to hire civilians to handle "supplies" "evidence storage" "computer tec" "ID person" ETC. McKenna could free up at least 5 sworn officers to work on the street instead of doing civilian work that can be done for half the cost. Our officials never think outside the box. All they want it to increase the city work force and taxes.

Anonymous said...

WHY is Mary Bartolotta allowed to vote on this? Her husband is a cop! Conflict of interest!

Anonymous said...

To Why is Mary Bartolotta allowed to vote? I will tell you, In order to be a conflict of interest her husband would have to be benefit or gain from the vote. You really need to think before you type it makes you look ignorant. Can you tell me how he benefits or gains from this vote? Also I have to say Mary is one of the few counsel persons that does not vote just because here party wants here to. Mary Bartolotta is a true person of integrity. That must worry the heck out of the other council members. Mary Bartolotta keep up the good work!