The Will County Circuit Court ordered $17,565,000 in fines from 2000-04 that have yet to be paid, according to County Finance Director Paul Rafac.
Rafac is pessimistic the county can recoup most of the money because the debtors are broke, moved away or are in jail. And most of the money collected would go to surrounding municipalities and the state in the form of traffic tickets and DUI arrests, he told a County Board committee last week.
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That leaves between $3 million and $4 million–less than 20 percent–for the county, he added.
Rafac was responding to a discussion regarding presentations by a Chicago-based collections firm. The firm promises to collect unpaid fines, delivering the full amount to the county. The firm would charge the debtor an additional 15 percent for its “service.”
But County Board Chairman Jim Moustis (R-Frankfort) was reluctant to give the firm an inside track, suggesting instead that the county formally seek solutions from all interested collection agencies.
Moustis also wondered about the role of the state’s attorney’s office in the process.
“Ultimately, who’s responsible?” he asked. “If it stays uncollected, who’s responsible? Is there a requirement to report the uncollected fines?”
Assistant State’s Atty. Phil Mock, acknowledging that the state’s attorney’s office tries to collect court-ordered fines in some felony convictions, said the Circuit Court is ultimately responsible.
Mock, however, was cool to the idea of increasing the state’s attorney’s collections work: “Do we want to put people in jail–that’s costing us money, because they don’t have the money to pay us?” he asked.