PLYMOUTH, N.H. — Citing difficulties in collecting more than $80,000 in parking violation fees from vehicles without permits, the Plymouth State Parking Committee is asking the Bursar’s Office to assume the billing responsibilities for all delinquent non-student citations.
According to PSC Police Chief John Clark, “We have run into a problem over the past several years where we have not been able to collect monies from folks whom: A) do not have a parking permit or B) cannot be identified through some type of on campus student identification or off campus student identification, meaning that they live in the contiguous neighborhoods around the college.”
Currently, when a non-permitted vehicle, such as that of a student’s friend or a family member, receives a parking citation from PSC Campus Police, they have the standard 30 days to voluntarily respond to the citation via the State Collection Authority (http://scapay.com). If, after 30 days, the violation remains unpaid, employees of the campus police department must go to the Plymouth Police Department and attempt to determine the identify of the vehicle’s owner using a SPOTS Terminal, a system used by many police departments to access motor vehicle registration information.
Although time consuming, the SPOTS system is effective and the Campus Police generally know the identities of delinquent offenders. However, if the person is not a student, the department is unable to bill those people using the preferred method, the PSC Bursar’s Office.
Said Chief Clark, “We have found over the past couple years, that there has been a reluctance by the Bursar’s Office to want to collect that money which totals, in funds, some eighty-six thousand dollars.”
Hypothetically, switching to a bursar-based process for all overdue fines could be a relatively painless operation for the Bursar’s Office. “We already bill [nonstudents] for the on-campus day care center, so the infrastructure is in place.” explained Ann Thurston, the Plymouth State College Bursar. “However, collectiblity is subjective. Is it a plethora of small tickets involving many different people? Or do we have some serious repeat offenders?”
Vice President of Finance, William Crangle echoed those sentiments, and considered the attempted collection of these accounts as “A question of feasibility.” He also cautioned the campus against suddenly expecting the “missing” funds to appear, and that a “cost versus gain” analysis is required to determine if an aggressive collection policy would even be worthwhile.
Previously, in an attempt to collect some of this delinquent revenue, the Campus Police has, on occasion, passed the responsibilities for paying outstanding fines to students assumed to be related to the offending party.
PSC Police Sergeant Michael Clark, explained, “What we would do is take a look and say ‘Ok, here’s Jane Doe who lives on Congress Street in Portland, Maine.’ We look through all of the Does and say, ‘Here’s her daughter’ and we bill the daughter for the ticket.” Sergeant Clark admits that while the majority of the people pay the fines that might be the responsibility of family members, those that have contested the fines “make a legitimate point.”
Thurston referred any questions about current Campus Police billing policies to the campus police themselves, explaining that the department decides who gets what fine and then downloads the names of the offenders and the amount of the fines directly into the billing system. However, when asked if she was aware of any other instance in the Plymouth State system where the financial obligations of one party were passed to family members, Thurston simply said, “I can’t think of any situation where we would bill a relative.”
Initial reaction from students has been mixed. First-year student Michael Gregorio was not overly concerned as long as the fines were actually those of family members, stating “If it was my parents that I was charged for, I wouldn’t mind so much, I’d just have them pay for it.” Meanwhile, others question the fairness of being charged for offenses they did not commit. “I don’t think that’s cool at all. If I didn’t do it, and someone else did, then charge them!” said First-year student, Andrea Lucas.
Representatives from the Plymouth State Campus Police, the Bursar’s Office and the Office of Financial Management are scheduled to meet early next week to discuss potential solutions to the problems.