The town of Forest Park, Ill., is in the process of hiring a collection agency to recover past due debt, including unpaid tickets, according to a published report.
The town’s administrator said it “parted ways” with the previous collection agency it was using because it “just didn’t feel they were giving us the service we needed.” The agency had been collecting on behalf of the town for the past five years.
A number of agencies have been interviewed as possible replacements, but it does not appear as though the town has been happy with anyone that has been interviewed so far.
“It should be simple but it’s not,” the town’s administrator said, because each agency’s operations are different, making it hard to compare one agency to another.
The agency is expected to collect between $100,000 and $200,000 of debt per year, according to the report. Issues with the previous agency led to a collection shortfall of $400,000 in last year’s budget. The new agency is expected to try and recover some of that debt as well, according to the report.
