State helps collect mayor's court fees

COLDWATER - Mayor's court is seeing an increase in collections due to assistance from the Ohio Attorney General's office.

Municipalities can enlist the help of the state office at no charge to collect unpaid traffic tickets and other violations handled by the court, village finance director Jason Eyink said. The office has the authority to withhold tax refunds to collect arrears. It also can block driver's license renewals until a debt is paid.

"In February and March our collections started going up," Eyink said, "They have a lot more power than we do, especially at tax time."
Fines and costs collected from mayor's court in 2015 were $24,458. Of that, $7,431 was collected by the attorney general's office, Eyink said. The office began collecting for the village that year.
"We submitted a file at the end of 2014," he said. "We turn over more files throughout the year, too."
Eyink noted the office is working to collect $26,000 in outstanding fines and costs. The attorney general's service saves the village money and effort.
"It saves us a lot of time and energy as well," he said, noting the village would have to send monthly notices and try to track down creditors without the attorney general's help.
According to the attorney general's website, the office's Collections Enforcement Section "is responsible for collecting outstanding debt owed to the state of Ohio for state agencies, institutions, boards, commissions, public university and hospitals and local government entities."  

Coldwater is the only area local government using the Attorney General's Collections Enforcement Section to collect on fines and court costs assessed through local mayor's courts.

Minster and New Bremen officials said unpaid fines are not a large problem in their villages this year so they do not use the state service.