Purpose of Audit

The purpose of our audit was to review the City’s parking violation operations for the period April 1, 2014 through April 30, 2015.

Background

The City of Utica is located in Oneida County and has a population of approximately 61,800. The City is governed by an elected 10-member Common Council and Mayor. During our audit period, the City issued more than 10,000 violations and reported fines and penalties collected of $356,211.

Key Findings

• The Council has not established sufficient policies for pursuing collection of parking violations after a violation is more than 10 days past due or set a benchmark for collection rates.
• Officials have not effectively segregated parking violation duties in the Department or implemented compensating controls such as requiring an independent review of dismissed reduced or adjusted parking violations.

Key Recommendations

• Establish a standard benchmark collection rate with which to periodically assess the Department’s parking violation collection system effectiveness and examine the effectiveness of its collection strategies and consider enhanced or alternative measures that may increase the collection of fines and related penalties.
• Adopt policies and procedures for collecting parking violations that segregate the clerk’s collection, recording and reporting duties or implement compensating controls if segregating duties is not feasible.