Memorandum
City of Lawrence
Legal Services Department
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TO: |
David L. Corliss, City Manager
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FROM: |
Toni Wheeler, Director of Legal Services Vicki Stanwix, Municipal Court Administrator
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C: |
Ed Mullins, Director of Finance
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Date: |
March 16, 2011 |
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RE: |
CitePayUSA Credit Card Processing Service for Municipal Court |
Action Requested
To obtain automated credit card payment services for Municipal Court from CitepayUSA, Inc. for fines and fees.
Project Description/History
Since 2001, the Lawrence Municipal Court has contracted with Government Payment Services for remote payments of fines and fees and cash bonds. The court receives an average of $20,000/month in credit card payments. Although the service is convenient for citizens, the service fee is much higher than average and there is no way for a citizen to pay fines in the court office with a credit card. In 2009 our court software provider, Justice Systems, Inc. expanded their company to include online, phone, and in-house credit card processing services exclusive to courts. CitePayUSA, Inc. was developed to work through FullCourt’s case management software. Currently, when a payment is made to Government Payment Services, a check for the payment is mailed to the court within 72 hours of the transaction. Court staff then posts the payment and deposits the check. With CitePayUSA, when a citizen makes a credit card payment, the FullCourt system is updated in a real time environment to dispose of the charge, post the payment and close the case. The funds are deposited into the city’s account via ACH transfer.
The Lawrence Municipal Court has been asked to partner with Justice Systems to pilot a new CitePayUSA service for parking payments. At this time, CitePayUSA is configured to accept payments for individual tickets based on the defendant’s name and/or ticket number. Programming is being developed for our court that would allow a citizen to pay multiple parking tickets by entering the license plate number into the search field on the payment screen. When the payment for all tickets is complete, the FullCourt system would be automatically updated to reflect a plea, disposition and payment on all tickets paid. No staff action is required for any credit card payment through CitePayUSA. In addition to the functionality and efficiency CitePayUSA will provide to the court, the service fee to the citizen is substantially less.
The fee for payments through Government Payment Services is $10.00 minimum up to $100 and 8% thereafter. The service fee through CitePayUSA is 5.9%. An example of savings to the citizen is shown below:
$15.00 meter ticket paid through GPS $10.00 service fee Total cost to citizen is $25.00
$15.00 meter ticket paid through CitePay 5.9% service fee Total cost to citizen is $15.88
CitePayUSA will allow us to increase the level of customer service we provide by allowing more payment options at a reduced rate. The benefits to the court are numerous. Hours of staff time will be saved as credit card payments will be posted automatically. Staff will have the ability to accept credit card payments at the customer service window and at the public access terminal that will be placed in the lobby area. A lower convenience fee will result in a greater number of credit card transactions. And finally, reporting and reconciliation will be easier for accounting staff.
Funding and Cost
There is no cost to the City for the installation, set up or activation of CitepayUSA services. There is an annual fee of $200 for the credit card swipe machine and associated software, billed annually. There are adequate funds in the approved Municipal Court budget to cover this annual fee. The public access terminal will be obtained from a court terminal replacement.
Action
Enter into an agreement with CitePayUSA for online, phone and in-house credit card payments for fines and fees. The court will continue to use Government Payment Services for cash bonds at the Douglas County Jail and the Police Department booking station.