News from the City of Wilmington
For Immediate Release
Monday, October 5, 2009
State Will Halt the Registration of a Vehicle at State DMV Facilities Until A Citizen Satisfies An Outstanding Debt; An Estimated $14 million in Delinquent Fines Are Owed in Wilmington
The City of Wilmington and the State of Delaware are teaming up to compel citizens who have unpaid parking tickets and red light violations in Wilmington to pay their delinquent fines before they can register their motor vehicles anywhere in the State.
The new collection program will begin immediately and be fully implemented early in 2010. Citizens who have continuously ignored parking tickets or red light violations in Wilmington for six months or more will receive notice of the new collection process from the City and State later this month and next month. The notice from the City in October and from the State in November will inform citizens of their outstanding debt and provide them with options to pay the debt immediately or make immediate payment arrangements.
Wilmington’s acting Finance Director James Jones said the intent of this program is to give citizens who are seriously delinquent on their traffic and parking violations every opportunity to make payment so the DMV “registration hold” process does not come into play. “The City routinely sends multiple notices to motorists about their outstanding tickets, and we will now send additional notices and work with vehicle owners when they arrive at the DMV to accept payment or arrange for a payment schedule if necessary,” said Jones.
If a citizen ignores the City and State collection notices, they will be prohibited from registering their vehicle at the Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Citizens will be given payment options when they arrive at the DMV so they can satisfy their debt and then register their vehicle on-the-spot. A City of Wilmington representative will be present at the DMV to accept payments for any delinquent parking and or traffic related violations.
"This is an example of how different levels of government in Delaware can work together to be more effective and more efficient," said DMV Director Jennifer Cohan. "We hope we never have to utilize the registration holds, but this is an important tool to help the City collect the revenue it is owed.”
Both the State and City have been charged respectively by Governor Jack Markell and Mayor James Baker with developing cooperative programs whenever possible to reduce expenditures and produce revenue. One area of discussion involves public safety. The Governor and Mayor said it is only fair to the majority of law-abiding citizens that other citizens be held accountable for violating parking and traffic laws and for failing to pay their fines after an extended period of delinquency.
Under the new State and City “vehicle registration hold” agreement for the collection of delinquent traffic ticket and red light violations, the City will receive 65% of revenue collected, and the State will receive 27%. The remaining 8% of revenue will go to ACS, a company that currently manages other outstanding traffic and red light debt collection systems for the City of Wilmington.
The new “vehicle registration hold” collection process is expected to produce millions of dollars in revenue for the City and State. The program will be managed by the Department of Finance for Wilmington and by the Division of Motor Vehicles for Delaware.
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