Purpose of Audit

The purpose of our audit was to examine the Village/Town’s receivables for parking offenses for the period June 1, 2011, to May 31, 2012.

Background

The Village/Town of Mount Kisco is located in Westchester County and has a population of 9,983. The Village/Town Court operates with two Justices and two Court clerks. The Court has jurisdiction over parking, vehicle and traffic, criminal, civil, and small claims cases. The Justices are responsible for all Court operations. During our audit period, the Village/Town issued about 29,870 parking tickets and collected approximately $721,000 in fines and penalties for parking violations.

Key Finding

• The Village/Town’s parking ticket collection rate exceeded 90 percent during fiscal years 2008 to 2012. Despite the high level of collection, the Village/Town still had $1.17 million in cumulative unpaid parking tickets outstanding as of May 31, 2012. This included 12,792 unpaid parking tickets totaling approximately $720,703 that have been outstanding for more than five years and 7,187 unpaid parking tickets totaling $450,260 outstanding for less than five years. Village officials stated that they are in the process of removing some of these parking tickets. However, as of July 25, 2012, they still remained on the unpaid parking ticket record.

Key Recommendation

• Adopt written policies and procedures for identifying uncollectible parking tickets and removing them