Objective

To determine whether the New York City Department of Finance (DOF) identifies and collects fines and fees that are due for parking violations. This audit covered the period from January 1, 2014 to February 4, 2019.

About the Program

DOF is responsible for collecting and processing payments for parking fines for the approximately 30 entities that can issue parking summonses within New York City. During fiscal years 2017 and 2018, DOF processed about 20 million summonses with a total value of $901 million and $994 million, respectively. DOF’s role includes generating and mailing notices of violations, collecting the amounts due, and adjudicating summonses that are disputed by the respondents. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between New York City and the U.S. Department of State (DOS) sets forth the parking program and procedures regarding summonses for plates issued by DOS. DOF maintains its Summons Tracking and Accounts Receivable System (STARS) to accomplish these tasks.

Key Findings

Overall, we determined that, while DOF identifies parking summonses to be processed, its collection of payments for parking fines needs to be improved.

• Many parking summonses are dismissed as defective due to errors that occurred when the summonses were issued.
• For some fines, DOF was unable to document that the required Pre-Penalty Notices, Notices of Impending Default Judgment, and/or Final Notices had been mailed to the vehicle owners.
• Receivables sent to collection agencies did not appear to be closely monitored to ensure that amounts owed had been collected.
• Until October 2018, DOF expended minimal effort to collect amounts due for summonses issued to vehicles with diplomatic plates. These amounts due include $15.6 million, based on the MOU for summonses issued before November 1, 2002.

Key Recommendations

• Ensure STARS properly accounts for all the summonses that have been written off and entered into judgment.
• Communicate with issuing agencies on ways to reduce the number of errors in summonses, such as additional training on writing summonses.
• Establish and document policies and procedures for employees to follow to collect parking summonses in judgment.
• Monitor the contracts with outside collection agencies to ensure collections are maximized.
• Enlist the cooperation of DOS’ Office of Foreign Missions and the New York City Mayor’s Office for International Affairs for their assistance in collecting the amounts due from each country.