City Councilman Bernard "Jack" Young agrees. He said that in the past, he tried to introduce legislation that would cap the unending monthly late fines, but the measure was politically unpopular. When Baltimore retained Linebarger, he said he pushed the city to allow people to pay back the fines on a payment plan, which the collections agency offers.
"I think there should be a cap," Young said. "It shouldn't go on forever."
Anne Arundel and Howard counties tack on modest fees and then flag drivers' registrations in the state's motor vehicle database. Baltimore County, according to its code, allows unlimited monthly penalties.
In Baltimore City, some people are skeptical of the high fines because the city's inspector general, Hilton Green, investigated a parking enforcement agent who wrote 112 fraudulent tickets a few years ago. That person was fired last year.
Green said he hasn't received complaints recently from people alleging fraud. But he did note several cases in which parking enforcement agents accidentally recorded incorrect information about a tag - causing the wrong owner to get fined.
He has also seen cases in which a driver who gets a ticket puts it on another person's car, in hopes the innocent driver will pay it. Or people lend their car to someone who gets a ticket but never tells the owner or pays the fine, Green said.
None of these scenarios appears to apply to Mary Davis, who lives near Lynchburg, Va. Davis said she received a collection notice in February for $496 - for a ticket issued three years ago in East Baltimore. But Davis claims she hasn't visited Baltimore in 15 years and never owned the car, an Isuzu, listed on the notice Linebarger sent. She tried to protest to the city, but couldn't find anyone to take her call in city government.
"I was so frustrated, I thought was going to have a stroke," Davis said.
Raymond, the city collections official, said he hasn't heard of people who were misidentified by Linebarger. But he acknowledged that the tracking methods that the city and the collections agency use can be different.
Whereas the city will send late notices to a person's last address on file with the state MVA, Linebarger will use other databases to find a current address, Raymond said. If people believe the notice they received is completely in error, they should call Linebarger, he said.
"If it is an issue, it's something that would happen very infrequently," Raymond said.
BY THE NUMBERS
* In February, a city-hired collections agency mailed 80,000 notices, covering a total 184,000 citations worth $132.7 million. Average owed per person: $721
* Total referred to agency since late 2006: 242,000 citations worth $169.7 million
* Total owed as of mid-March: 459,000 citations worth $181 million
Source: Baltimore Bureau of Revenue Collections
