Department of Public Safety officials said there are few problems with unpaid parking tickets, despite high numbers of parking citations issued each year.

The DPS Parking Division issues 120,000 parking citation tickets and generates $1.3 million in revenue from parking fines each year, said Peggy Best, office coordinator for the parking division.

However, the parking division has a 96 percent return rate on fines.

“We usually don’t have a problem with people failing to pay their bills,” said Joan Thompson, university treasurer.

Best said the parking division makes sure faculty, staff, students and visitors pay their parking fines. Visitors are allowed three parking citations before being fined, Best said.

“We’re assuming by the third ticket they’ll start to learn where they can and cannot park,” Best said.

Kiron resident John Healy said he has received several parking tickets while visiting relatives on campus.

“It’s really annoying how [DPS] seems to be everywhere, but I understand I’m not supposed to be parking in some places, and I’ll take the consequences that go along with that,” Healy said.

Fines can be hefty if parking tickets are not paid. Faculty and staff are not allowed to renew their parking permits and students are not allowed to graduate unless parking fines are paid, Best said.

A person is given 10 days to pay or appeal parking fines before the charges roll over to his or her U-Bill. Visitors with parking fines are issued a U-Bill by the accounts receivable office, Best said.

Thompson said a bill is issued to a violator if the fine is less than $100. If the visitor does not immediately pay the bill, the accounts receivable office will send a bill again in May and another in October. If the bill still is not paid it eventually gets written off, Thompson said.

If the bill is for more than $100, the violator is billed monthly and is issued a finance charge of 1 percent per month. If the violator fails to pay the bill, his or her name will be sent into a collection agency, a third party the university hires to collect the fine, Thompson said.

“We rarely send in information to the collection agency,” Thompson said.

Visitors can appeal parking tickets by sending a written statement to the Traffic Appeals Board, whose members are made up of representatives from across campus. If an appeal is not granted by the board, a visitor may continue with the appeal by having an administrative meeting with Doug Houghton, program manager for the parking division. Hearings can take place in person or be submitted as a written statement, Best said.