Vegas misses out on millions as parking tickets go uncollected

By Joe Schoenmann (contact)

Sunday, Jan. 6, 2008 | midnight

Over the past three years, nearly as much money in parking tickets went unpaid in Las Vegas as was collected.

From 2005 through 2007, the city collected $8.7 million in parking ticket revenue. But over the same period, $8.1 million in parking fines went unpaid, with the largest unpaid penalty for one person topping $5,000.

That $8.1 million equals roughly 135,000 citations, assuming each ticket, initially priced at $20, reached a maximum fine of $60 when its recipient chose not to pay.

In a city that has been home to some of the biggest scammers, frauds and thieves, maybe it's not that people think they are getting away with something so much as the belief that it's such a small-scale offense, why worry about it?

Or maybe people don't care because the punishment is relatively painless.

At a city Audit Oversight Committee meeting last month, board members approved an audit to look into the unpaid tickets problem.

Committee member Jose Troncoso said an audit in mid-2007 showed that out-of-state drivers were not the only ones not paying up.

“The locals were not even (being) collected from,” he said. “We had a long, serious discussion ... because it's huge.”

Venetta Appleyard, Financial Services Division manager, outlined some of the procedures in place to force people to pay their fines.

The Nevada Motor Vehicles Department, for instance, places a hold on vehicle registrations if an outstanding citation is more than 30 days old. So the only way for someone with outstanding tickets to register a vehicle is to pay the fine.

The city also “boots” vehicles that have accumulated five unpaid citations or $500 in fines. The boot, which the city has used since about 2000, is a device that clamps to a vehicle's wheels, immobilizing it until someone unlocks it. Last year, the city booted 105 vehicles, a small number compared with the huge number of unpaid tickets.

City Hall also uses collection agencies. Until mid-2007, the city sent tickets to a collection agency when they were 25 months past due.

But in July that policy changed. Under the new procedure, 37 days after a citation is issued, a late notice is mailed to the vehicle's registered owner. A second notice goes out at 59 days, at 180 days the owner is notified that the fine is going to a collection agency, and at 270 days, a collection agency gets involved.

Since adopting the new policy, the city has collected $230,630 in previously unpaid fines, according to a spokesman.

Las Vegas is not the only city with an unpaid ticket problem. The situation is the norm across the country.

Last year in Little Rock, Ark., parking fines unpaid since 2001 totaled $1.5 million. In 2003, city officials started a “shame campaign” in which the names of the worst offenders were displayed in full-page newspaper ads. After that effort met with limited success, the city began to use the dreaded boot.

In June, as its unpaid tickets total approached $1 million, Peoria, Ill., enacted a program to boot vehicles whose owners had not paid their parking fines.

In five years, Mobile, Ala., has counted 28,414 past-due tickets totaling $1.2 million. Louisville, Ky., officials are trying to collect on 220,000 unpaid parking tickets, in part by sending certified letters to vehicle owners with three or more outstanding tickets. And Providence, R.I., officials last year saw the unpaid fines from their city's four-year total of outstanding parking tickets reach a whopping $17 million.

Collection, however, is becoming a more pressing issue in Las Vegas because of budget concerns. Housing construction here is down, decreasing tax revenue for the city -- and forcing the city to look more closely at other sources of revenue.

In the next fiscal year, the city expects to face a $20 million shortfall. And though collecting on unpaid parking tickets would not erase that deficit, it would put a significant dent in it.

Joe Schoenmann can be reached at 229-6436 or at joe.schoenmann@lasvegassun.com.