A plan to clear up a backlog of $200 million in unpaid parking-ticket fines would take at least 18 months to work, says Aurelia Pucinski, Democratic candidate for clerk of Cook County Circuit Court.
Pucinski, at a news conference Sunday in the Bismarck Hotel, said that if elected she would improve data retrieval and information management to end the backlog and remove the clerk`s office from the collection process. She did not provide more details.
”One must address the backlog and refine the system so that Chicago can handle its own process internally,” Pucinski said.
The clerk`s office processes parking tickets. Under legislation recently approved by the state legislature, parking tickets would be decriminalized and the city`s Revenue Department would set up its own hearing and collection system.
Ald. Lawrence Bloom (5th), who endorsed Pucinski`s plan, appeared with her at the news conference.
Bloom said that although an ordinance exists to prevent city residents from being issued car stickers if they have not paid their parking tickets, the system does not work because the city does not have access to parking-ticket information.
”If we don`t know that a person has an outstanding ticket, we can`t refuse to issue a sticker,” Bloom said.
Bloom said that if the city could collect unpaid parking-ticket revenue, the fines would ease the burden on city property owners.
Of $200 million owed in unpaid parking fines, about $100 million is collectible, Bloom said. ”For every dollar collected, it reduces one dollar we have to go to property owners for in tax,” he said.
Earlier Sunday, Pucinski attended a breakfast meeting of the 47th Ward Democratic Organization, where County Board President George Dunne appealed for unity in the Democratic Party.
Almost all the slated candidates for county offices attended the meeting at Chicago Brauhaus, 4732 N. Lincoln Ave.
”It`s what is going to deliver the entire ticket,” said Thomas Serafin, a Pucinski spokesman. ”The ticket is a cross-section and represents all segments of society-black, white and Hispanic.”
Dunne called for the Democratic party to ”heal its wounds and march on,” Serafin said.
