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Highlands Library Gets OK To Get Tough Collecting Fees, Fines

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By JIM KONKOLY

Highlands Today

Published: August 5, 2008

SEBRING - Officials of the Highlands County Library System went to the county commission today to get approval to hire a bill collection agency to go after unpaid fees and fines.

They got unanimous approval from the five county commissioners, and they were praised for tackling a problem that plagues many library systems in Florida.

Commissioner Don Bates had an idea for Mary Myers, the library system director.

"How about an amnesty period?" Bates asked Myers shortly before he and the other commissioners voted to approve hiring a bill collection agency.

"Amnesty is kind of an interesting idea," Myers said. She said the amnesty would be simple to do and that she has no problem with it

The call on amnesty will be left up to library officials.

Library officials also will decide when to put Unique Management Services on the job of hunting down people who owe big fines or fees. The agency will track down people who have library materials that are more than 50 days overdue or who should buy new copies of the materials they borrowed because those materials are more than 60 days overdue.

If library debtors are found and refuse to pay up, Unique Management Services will report them to credit bureaus. In a story in Highlands Today on Sunday, Myers said getting a bad debt mark on a credit report could stop people from getting a loan to buy a car or a house "because they owe the library, say, $50."

Myers said she received many extremely favorable comments from people after the newspaper story about hiring a collection agency. More goodwill could be generated by offering an amnesty period, she said.

Myers said the collection process could start this week. She will announce the day when Unique Management Services gets its first list of debtors.

Unique Management Services will only be paid when it gets a debtor to pay, and its fee will be limited to the $8.95 it charges each debtor for its service.

Myers said the company will not go after everyone -- fines and fees totaling more than $217,000 -- because many of those debts are several years old. The oldest such case is 12 years old, she told commissioners.

"Our biggest problem," Myers said, referring to the library's poor record in getting debtors to pay up, "is that people give us false addresses or old addresses."

As an example of a past-due account, Myers cited for commissioners the case of an Avon Park resident who owes the library $626 in fines and fees.

Reporter Jim Konkoly can be reached at 863-386-5855 or by e-mail at jkonkoly@highlandstoday.com.

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