Amnesty For Outstanding Parking Tickets in Port Jeff

Starting on March 22 and continuing until April 30 the has instituted an amnesty program for individuals with outstanding parking tickets issued prior to Feb. 11, 2011 dating back to 2004.

A 40 percent reduction in the original summons amount plus penalties will be taken off the money owed for those who pay their fines during the amnesty period.

Christine Wood who is Senior Justice Court Clerk for the Village of Port Jefferson said that the village wanted to offer this program to recap some fees owed to them along with giving people a savings while doing so.

The outstanding tickets number in the thousands.

“Five thousand letters went out this week on Monday and Tuesday,” Wood said.

The amnesty program applies to any type of parking ticket issued by the village, including parking in a resident lot, parking in a handicap spot and meter violations.

Although the number varies year to year, Wood confirmed that in 2009 a total of 8,000 parking tickets were written.

The reason the amnesty program put into effect is to collect the outstanding revenue owed to the village. The village held an amnesty program once before in 2008.

“It was big success,” she said.

A statement issued by the village said that when the program ends the full penalties will be re-instituted and “all appropriate enforcement and collection procedures will be implemented.”

At the time this article was written, the total money from tickets eligible for the amnesty program was not available but Wood said she would get us that information. We will post it here in an update once we get that total amount.