Los Alamitos Contracts Out Ticket Handling

LOS ALAMITOS — The City Council approved a police proposal to hire Judicial Data of Costa Mesa to process the estimated 3,600 parking citations issued each year.

The pact will cost the city about $3,780 a year, which will be more than covered by revenue from parking citations, City Manager Robert C. Dunek said. The council approved the contract Monday.

Revenue from parking tickets was $76,000 in 1991 and $60,000 in 1992. The city expects to collect about $63,000 this year.

Dunek said cities keep most of the revenue from parking violations, with the courts receiving a percentage and processing companies getting a fixed fee.

“There’s a lot of administrative work involved in processing parking tickets,” Dunek said. “It’s cheaper for us to pay a small fee to someone than to do it ourselves, which most cities are doing.”

The city’s contract last year with West-Computil for the service expired in November. Since then, the city has processed the tickets itself.

The city will pay Judicial Data $1.05 per citation. Previously, the city paid $1.10 to West-Computil. Two other companies bid for the service. The firm also serves Santa Ana and Fullerton.