At a City Council meeting a few weeks ago, I spoke out against a proposed sales tax hike, citing that we needed to clean up government waste and mismanagement of our tax dollars before raising more taxes.
One example of government waste, I pointed out, was the city overpaying millions of dollars to a company to just process parking tickets. In a Freudian slip, I identified the company as Turbo Tax when in fact the company is called Turbo Data.
I understand that after I left the Council meeting someone from staff sharply questioned my figures, claiming that Turbo Data only received $64,000, not the millions I had identified.
If I am wrong or misstate something, I will own up to it. I went to check on my source the City of Culver City Revenue Report, September 2009, pp. 33 and 34.
This is what the report stated:
“Court Fines – General #1. Parking tickets (violator pays to Turbo Data, Police Department receives approximately 50% of ticket from Turbo Data).”
On page 33 of the report, the table shows that the Police Dept. received $1,294,710.
This means that if the police department's 50% share was $1,294,710, Turbo Data's share was $1,294,710.
Come now. Does it really cost that much to process a parking ticket? What is going on with our accounting? Why is there such a discrepancy between dollar amounts in the verbal explanation to the public and what actually is being spent?
Mr. Zirgulis, a former candidate for the City Council, may be contacted at zirgulisr@yahoo.com
