 In this segment of city briefs:
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Denise Martinek, city clerk, spoke
of birth and death certificate fees as well as collection of
delinquent sewer bills.
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John Lebegue, city zoning and safety officer, outlined ideas for
increasing ordinance violation fines.
Midwest Collections proposes taking over delinquent sewer
accounts
Martinek said she has heard from Midwest Collections in Decatur
that they would be interested in taking on the city's delinquent
sewer accounts. She added that currently this is the company that
handles the city's parking ticket collections, so she is familiar
with the firm.
Midwest Collections is proposing to take over the delinquent
sewer accounts for a base fee of 33 1/3 percent of the total bill.
Martinek said that if they had to go into litigation to complete the
collection process, the fee would go to 50 percent of the total.
She also explained that once an account goes to the firm, the
city has to stop adding late fees to the delinquent balance.
However, if the collection agency has to move into litigation, all
of those fees would then be added back on to the account.
City attorney Bill Bates said that if this was the route the city
wanted to go, they needed to investigate other companies as well.
His opinion is that the fees Midwest is quoting are higher than they
need to be.
Bates said that the fee should be around 25 percent for basic
collections. He added that the 50 percent for litigated collections
is also quite high.
Fees for birth and death certificates are well below the norm
The city clerk's office is the official registrar of birth and
death certificates for all of Logan County. Martinek said that as
such, all information is sent to her office for recording. After a
certain period of time, those records are forwarded to the county
courthouse, but anyone needing such a certificate early on must get
it from the city.
Currently the city charges $5 for an original birth certificate
and $2 for each additional copy. The fees for death certificates are
$7 and $4 respectively.
Martinek said that she had polled some area cities that, like
Lincoln, are the official registrar, and she found that they are charging
at least double those amounts.
She cited Taylorville, Jacksonville, Pontiac and East Moline,
saying that original certificates range from $9 to $20 for births
and $14 to $22 for deaths.
She also told the council that recently the cost of preparing a
certificate has increased because the state now requires that they
be printed on special papers that cost approximately 80 cents per
sheet.
Alderwoman Melody Anderson, who chairs the city finance
committee, asked Martinek to continue working on the fee structure.
Martinek said that before the city considers an increase, she wants
to have some input from Sally Litterly in the county recorder's
office, but she will get back to the council in the near future.
[to top of second column]
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 Ordinance violators need heftier fines
Alderman Tom O'Donohue is the newly appointed chair of the
ordinance committee. He said that Lebegue, the new zoning and safety
officer, has been looking at the fines structure for ordinance
violations and has some suggestions for changes. Donohue asked
Lebegue to explain.
Lebegue said that in the time he has been with the city, he has
investigated the fines attached to ordinance violations and compared
them with other cities in this region.
His finding is that the city of Lincoln is well below what other
areas charge. He noted that in Lincoln, fines start at $25 and go up
to $100 for the more serious violators. In other areas close by,
those fines begin at $75 and can run as high as $500 for the more
serious violations.
Lebegue said that also in his research he has found that some of
the towns are imposing a double fine for repeat offenders.
He feels that the fines Lincoln imposes are not high enough to be
a deterrent to potential violators, and this is something that needs
to be addressed.
Alderwoman Melody Anderson said she was very much in favor of
increasing these fines, but she wondered how many codes would be
affected.
Lebegue said there were several, as he felt that the changes to
the fines needed to be uniform across the board. He said every
ordinance that pertains to fines will have to be reviewed and
corrected.
Currently the city uses Sterling Codifiers to publish ordinances.
That firm charges according to the number of corrections they have
to make. Lebegue said he has not reached the point of contacting
them about the cost of the update but will do so before the council
is asked to take any kind of action.
Alderwoman Marty Neitzel wondered whether there was money in the
budget for this kind of overhaul, and Anderson said there was some.
She told Neitzel that changes could be made until the money ran out,
and then they'd have to stop until next year.
As it was being discussed, city police Chief Ken Greenslate said
he felt it would be good to look at the fines for the police and
fire departments as well. He said that he knows it has been several
years since those have been addressed.
Mayor Keith Snyder asked that he and fire Chief Kent Hulett look
into it and report back to the council.
O'Donohue said that right now he isn't going to ask for any kind
of action from the council. He wants to continue working with
Lebegue on this matter and hopes to report back at the next workshop
meeting with a solid recommendation.
[By NILA SMITH] |
