Purpose of Audit

The purpose of our audit was to examine the Town’s parking violation enforcement activities and review the internal controls over the parking ticket collection process for the period January 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016.

Background

The Town of Poughkeepsie is located in Duchess County and has a population of approximately 45,000. The Town, which is governed by an elected seven-member Town Board, operates a Justice Court with two Justices. The Court’s 2015 revenue from parking tickets was $81,365.

Key Findings

• The Town had 6,900 parking violations that have been outstanding since September 1990.
• One clerk was responsible for all aspects of Court ticket functions without oversight.
• The Police Department's inventory log for tickets books was incomplete.

Key Recommendations

• Examine the effectiveness of collection strategies and consider other or enhanced measures that may increase the collection of fines and related penalties.
• Review the clerk’s duties and separate the incompatible functions or implement compensating controls to restrict the clerk’s ability to dismiss or reduce parking violations fees and change parking violations dates without first obtaining authorized approvals.
• Ensure that the Police Department maintains a record showing the tickets assigned to each issuing officer and that periodically an inventory of parking tickets issued and on hand is conducted.