PRESENTER: Presenter
Ruth Sandoval, Municipal Court Administrator
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SUBJECT: Title
Approval of a contract with McCreary, Veselka, Bragg & Allen P.C. for support of case resolutions and delinquent account collections.
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DEPARTMENT: Municipal Court
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COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: All
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The city municipal court receives between 11,300 to 14,000 filings each year and issues approximately 1,500 warrants each year. From those cases, there are approximately 9,300 inactive and past due cases that range from $50 to $1,500. A Request for Proposal was issued on February 16, 2024, for a qualified service provider to support Case Resolution and Delinquent Account Collections on behalf of the City’s Municipal Court. The City received three responses, and after evaluation, the staff is recommending McCreary, Veselka, Bragg & Allen P.C., MBVA, be awarded a one-year term with the option of three one-year term renewals.
The courts have the opportunity with this partnership to collect outstanding fines for cases that are out of compliance. This will reduce the number of stale cases and increase revenue for fines and court costs. Article 103.0031 of the Code of Criminal Procedure permits a thirty percent (30%) of the total amount due the court may be added to the defendant's case by the court. The fee sequence will be set to allocate the collection fee after State fees and Court costs. This ensures that the collection fees, MVBA’s fee, is applied after all other mandatory fees have been allocated.
MVBA is providing a twenty percent (20%) of all revenues paid to MVBA by the City be paid to the City to help manage the relationship and information exchange with MVBA.
Other enhanced services they will provide at no additional cost include pre-warrant calls, warrant-round-up/warrant resolution services, warrant round-up pre-collection mailings, GIS mapping tool, specialized skip-tracing services, scofflaw processing and reporting.
ISSUE:
Municipal Court has outstanding cases that need to be brought into compliance with the collection of fines and court costs. This contract will provide a third party to collect these fines on behalf of the city.
STRATEGIC PLAN REFERENCE:
☐Economic Mobility ☐Enhanced Connectivity ☐Community Identity
☒Organizational Excellence ☐Community Well-Being ☐N/A
FISCAL IMPACT:
The fees paid to MVBA are based on what is only collected from the defendants outstanding fines. The City will not incur additional costs, therefore there are sufficient funds to support this contract.
Recommendation
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends approval of a contract with McCreary, Veselka, Bragg & Allen P.C. for support of case resolutions and delinquent account collections.