In conjunction with the city’s police department going from a criminal process to civil process for city ordinance violations in January, the Roanoke Rapids council Tuesday approved a memorandum of understanding for the participation in the Debt Setoff Clearinghouse for collection of penalties.
In a memo to the council, Chief Shane Guyant wrote that because the city is a member of the North Carolina League of Municipalities, it is eligible to use the service as a representative for the city.
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Under this service when a violator is cited, they have 30 days to pay the fine or appeal the citation.
After that 30 days and no payment is made by the violator, they will be contacted by the police department and notified that they have an additional 30 days to pay the fine or appeal the citation as part of the civil process through the city.
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If at the end of this total 60 days the violator has not paid the fine or appealed it will be reported to the clearinghouse.
The DSC will use their ability to levy state income taxes, lottery winnings and other forms of income to recover the fines.
The debtor is responsible for the fees associated with the collections. “Using the Debt Setoff Clearinghouse ensures that all amounts collected stay with the city as revenue,” Guyant wrote. “None of the proceeds are sent to the school system through the clerk of court action like it is now with the criminal remedy.”
With this, Guyant told the council, “Now we actually have some ability to have some kind of recoupment of the fine associated with that particular ordinance violation.”
He said there is no fee to the city for the program. “Any kind of fees associated with the Debt Clearinghouse are charged to the debtor. Essentially what this is is the Debt Clearinghouse is serving as a collection agency for the city in these particular matters specific to this.”
Several jurisdictions in North Carolina, both city and county, use the Debt Clearinghouse Program, the chief said. “This is a program that is being used by all other municipalities in the county as well as the county itself.”
