Jeff Otte works in downtown Lawrence, so it’s not surprising he gets dozens of tickets for parking his car and forgetting to feed the meter every 90 minutes.

“I’ve paid almost $50 in parking tickets the last month,” Otte said last week.

Otte is different from some Lawrence parking scofflaws: He pays his fines.

City officials say they have about $250,000 in uncollected parking fines, money that would come in handy in a tight budget year.

Officials say they collect an average of 68 percent of fines for parking meter violations. That’s a lower percentage than the 73 percent collection rate for all fines imposed by Lawrence Municipal Court. The city reports $440,956 uncollected for other types of municipal fines.

If there’s an “industry standard” for an acceptable rate of collecting such fines, none of the experts contacted knew of it.

But Lawrence officials said considering the mobile nature of the city’s population, the city is doing a good job. In Fort Collins, Colo., home of Colorado State University, a similar survey recently revealed a collection rate of about 66 percent.

“In a college town, I think it’s pretty remarkable to have it that high,” Mayor Sue Hack said of Lawrence’s record.

But if the city could find a way to bring that money in, much could be done with it.

“We could study the North Lawrence drainage with that money, add another detective or two to the police department,” Hack said.

Lisa McDonald, a municipal court clerk, counts through some tickets as part of her job to tally and check fines. Her totals last week were substantial, but city officials say they have about 50,000 in uncollected parking fines, money that would come in handy in a tight budget year.

A better method

Assistant City Manager Dave Corliss, who oversees the municipal court as part of his responsibilities, said the city can do better.

“We are using or seeking to use a number of methods to improve collection,” he said. “I am not satisfied at the level of collection and would like to seek more alternatives.”

He added: “It’s difficult to collect every dollar.”

In 2002, the city issued 110,000 parking meter tickets, plus 36,000 citations for traffic, “public offense misdemeanors” and other low-level violations of the law. The city collected more than $1.6 million in 2002 from fines for those offenses.

If the fines aren’t paid, the city sends notice to the owner of the vehicle or the recipient of the citation. If that doesn’t work, the Lawrence Municipal Court can eventually issue an arrest warrant — there are now more than 3,800 outstanding warrants from the court. More than 1,500 warrants were served by the police in 2002.

In addition, Corliss said, the city also works with the state to suspend driver’s licenses and can ask the Kansas Department of Revenue to withhold part of a violator’s tax refund to pay his municipal court bill.

And, Corliss said, the city may soon put a collection agency to work.

“Other alternatives, such as ‘booting’ habitual violators of the downtown parking system have been discussed but not pursued,” he said.

Boots are mechanical devices locked to the wheels of vehicles rendering them useless to the driver until authorities unlock the boot.

Lawrence officials say they collect an average of 68 percent of fines for parking meter violations. That's a lower percentage than the 73 percent collection rate for all fines imposed by Lawrence Municipal Court.

Corliss said that such extremes probably wouldn’t be used to track the recipient of a $2 downtown parking ticket. A driver who was cited for operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, on the other hand, could expect to be pursued.

“We focus on the higher offenses and the habitual offenders when we must choose how to deploy our resources,” Corliss said.

Collection agency

That’s especially true in a tight economy. Lawrence Police used to have two officers who spent all their time serving municipal court warrants, Corliss said. But tight budgets have forced the department to shift its priorities elsewhere.

Mayor Sue Hack said she’d be interested in using a collection agency.

“Obviously, if you hire somebody, you want to collect more than you’re paying,” she said.

That may not be a problem. Corliss said the Legislature may consider a bill this session that would allow cities to charge violators for the cost of collecting fines.

Corliss cautioned against using municipal court as a place to make up the city’s budget shortfall.

“It’s a place where the city alleges violations of its laws … we don’t look at municipal court simply as a revenue source,” he said. “That wouldn’t be appropriate.”