OFFICIALS: As many as 400 overpay each month
CITY HALL — The first batch of refund checks will be mailed this week to motorists who mistakenly paid too much for their parking tickets.
Candace Tysdal, acting finance director for City Hall, said her office received 129 requests for refunds — totaling $7,655 — earli-er this week.
Once each request is verified, a check will be issued along with a postcard encouraging recipients to detail why they overpaid.
Instead of a refund, motorists also have the option of having the excess funds applied to other parking tickets, Tysdal said.
City Hall estimates there are more than 18,000 citations in which motorists paid more than what was due, filling city coffers with an estimated $950,000. Offers for a refund have been sent for each citation.
Going forward, there could be as many as 400 refunds totaling $20,000 each month, which would represent approximately 2 percent of the total revenue collected from citations, city officials said.
The refunds are part of City Hall’s new customer service initiative, “We Do the Right Thing Right,” and were identified by the finance department during a review of how money is collected by City Hall.
Once overpayments were identified, staff devised a proactive refund program, whereas before refunds were only given to those who made a request.
“Right now we’re really focused on working through this backlog and getting letters out to people as quickly as possible so that we can turn around and refund their money as soon as possible,” Tysdal said.
In addition to the refunds, city staff members are talking with Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (ACS) — which processes all parking citations for City Hall — about options for better notification when an overpayment is made.
West Hollywood, which also contracts with ACS, has a system in place that alerts employees to an overpayment once a check has cleared. The motorist is notified and a refund is offered.
“Going forward, we are going to be discussing how to deal with overpayments in the future, find out what is causing overpayments and curtail that if we can,” said Eva Uren, acting revenue manager for the city treasury. “We want to improve the process, but in the meantime we are trying to get refunds out quickly.”
Uren said City Hall has changed its policy of collecting overpayments in favor of one that offers refunds automatically, unless the motorists request otherwise.
Overpayments are generally made by those who pay a parking ticket weeks after it is issued, city officials said. That delay causes a notice to be sent to a driver, who may send money again thinking their initial payment was not received. A spouse may do the same, thinking their significant other was forgetful.
In other cases, the California Department of Motor vehicles collects citation payments at the time of vehicle registration, even after an individual has already made a late payment to City Hall. The DMV later remits these payments, city officials said.
City Hall collected $12.6 million in revenue from parking tickets last year, with $4.6 million going to pay for operating expenses.
This left $8 million in actual revenue, a very small portion of the $256 million allocated to the general fund, which pays for essential city services such as public safety, city officials said.
It is estimated that City Hall loses $2 million annually because many fail or refuse to pay fines, city officials said.
Refunding all of the $950,000 in excess revenue may be impossible given 80 percent of those who over-paid live outside of the city or were driving rental cars at the time.
Money that is not refunded will remain in the general fund.
City officials said the top four situations in which people receive citations are when parking at a meter at which time has expired; parking in a preferential parking zone without a permit; parking in a no-parking zone, such as a fire lane; and blocking driveways and exits.
Those who believe they may be eligible for a refund are urged to fill out a verification form online at www.smgov.net, or call (800) 214-1526.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 26, 2006. Read the original PDF.