Municipal Judge Blocks Plan to Use Private Collectors

By Marie Rohde, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

City officials (in Glendale, WI) believe they could collect as much as $800,000 in unpaid court fines by hiring a collection agency to go after scofflaws. But the city’s municipal judge won’t agree to the plan because he said he would need a part-time clerk to do extra paperwork.

About three months ago, the city agreed to hire a collection agency to go after $1.033 million in unpaid Municipal Court fines. Some of the nearly 5,000 cases in which the fines were not paid date back more than a decade.

The agency would get 19% of the money it collects.

City Attorney John Fuchs told the Common Council this week that the collection agency, Professional Placement Services, had agreed to pick up the cost of a temporary worker at no cost to the city, but that the judge, Christopher Lipscomb, would not agree to the plan.

For this complete story, please visit http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=402158.