Megan Cassidy

The Republic | azcentral.com

Phoenix courts on Monday will launch a program that could help thousands repay their debts to the city and forge a pathway to reinstating their suspended driver’s licenses.

The Compliance Assistance Program is designed to break what can become a crippling cycle of fines and subsequent driving penalties: Unpaid fines can lead to a suspended license. And driving on a suspended license can lead to criminal charges and jail time for the working poor.

As of Dec. 31, Phoenix was owed more than $283 million in overdue municipal fines, fees and restitution dating back decades. As many as 6,000 people currently have their licenses suspended because of delinquent Phoenix fines.

For many people, unpaid fines are the primary roadblock to the restoration of their driving privileges. Those who qualify for the program will be placed on a realistic payment plan, and court officials in turn will notify the Motor Vehicle Division that participants are compliant with court fines.

“It’s really providing a mechanism that people haven’t really had before,” said B. Don Taylor, chief presiding judge for Phoenix Municipal Court. “I think creating something that will allow them to be compliant, get the license back, really helps them be in a good place.”

The initiative comes amid a national discussion on the snowballing effects of municipal fees, which can balloon into thousands of dollars in debt for those unable to pay the initial fines.

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Cycle of penalties

For many Arizonans, the occasional nuisance of traffic tickets is a fact of life. A $186 speeding ticket is paid on time and in full, resulting in no more than a blip on a credit-card statement.

But the alternative scenario is daily reality in Municipal Court. A typical example: A man with the same $186 speeding ticket is unable to pay the amount in full. He fails to pay the tab on time, which tacks on a $40 late fee. He agrees to a monthly payment plan but becomes delinquent, which kicks his debt over to a collection agency.

The effects of the collection agency’s involvement are twofold. Collections will charge an additional fee for its services, and the city will contact the MVD, which will suspend the individual’s driver’s license and refuse to renew a vehicle registration until the debt is paid in full.

For many people like Laveen resident Daniel Ruiz, a suspended license makes it harder to get to work, harder to make money, harder to pay his fees.

Ruiz said his problems began about seven years ago, after receiving a ticket for expired license plates. Ruiz said that he failed to pay the fine but said he didn’t realize his license was suspended until he was pulled over years later.

Ruiz, who works as a contractor painting parking lots, has since enrolled in monthly payment plans and tries to get rides to work, but said committing to both can be unrealistic.

He’s the sole provider for his fiancee and two young children, and works a seasonal job that sometimes only offers 20 to 30 hours of work a week. When funds run low, paying off his debt falls to the bottom of his priorities.

Because he often starts work in the middle of the night, securing a ride to work can be a hassle. Rather than going to the trouble of waking up the kids and getting a ride from his fiancee, it’s often easier just to risk the drive himself.

He’s since been arrested and thrown in jail three times for driving on a suspended license.

“Every single mug shot I have I’m in a work shirt, because that’s where I’m going,” he said. “Even if you make one little wrong move, it just messes up everything, puts us in more of a hole.”

Counting his principal fines, late fees and additional traffic violations, Ruiz owes $3,165 to Phoenix.

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Program limitations

Only civil traffic offenders are eligible to apply for the Compliance Assistance Program.

Those whose licenses are suspended for failing to pay for violations such as speeding or running a red light are eligible. People facing fines for criminal violations, such as driving under the influence or driving on a suspended license, are not eligible.

For Ruiz, those guidelines could offer only a partial solution. He can enter a payment plan for the civil portions of his fines, but his subsequent criminal infractions may make him ineligible to get his license reinstated until he pays those fees in full.

Each scenario will be examined on a case-by-case basis by a Phoenix judge.

And the MVD may have other stipulations, outside of unpaid court fines, that prevent people in the Compliance Assistance Program from getting their licenses reinstated.

The program is limited to Phoenix courts, meaning those people who have failed to pay fees from other jurisdictions likely have to pay those fines before getting their licenses reinstated.

Defense attorney Alex Benezra said, like Ruiz, many of his clients’ civil violations result in criminal citations that render them ineligible for the program. Still, he said, the program is a significant step in the right direction.

“I don’t want to say it has major defects,” he said. “It’ll make a big difference in people’s lives.”

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Municipal fees under fire

Discussion of the ripple effects of municipal fees found a national stage in 2015 after a withering U.S. Department of Justice report on policing and city courts in Ferguson, Mo.

The report came in response to the unrest that followed an officer-involved shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teen, and sought to identify the causes of such sharp distrust between citizens and law enforcement.

The DOJ found that Ferguson’s municipal court used minor violations as a revenue machine for city government and imposed excessively harsh penalties for missed payments.

The problems in Ferguson helped drive officials in other local governments to take a closer look at their own systems.

Phoenix City Councilwoman Kate Gallego said she sat in on some Municipal Court cases and watched how quickly a simple ticket for driving without car insurance could spark a downward spiral.

“The city has cabinet after cabinet of open files,” she said. “So that’s causing a cost to the taxpayers, people are afraid of police and we’re not getting paid. It’s a lose-lose, and we’re looking for a win-win.”

There are significant differences between Phoenix’s methods of operation and those of other cities. Unlike some municipalities, Phoenix does not allow fines to accrue interest, nor does it allow a convenience fee for entering into a payment plan.

And municipal fees only account for a fraction of what goes into Phoenix’s general budget.

Still, Gallego said she noticed some disturbing local practices. For one, she said, city officials often would encourage people to max out their credit cards to pay their debt. That practice now has been eliminated.

“We want people to be able to pay their fines in a sustainable way,” she said. “If you push people to the brink of their financial ability, the consequences are more negative.”

Gallego said she made reforming the Municipal Court system a priority in her decision-making when the City Council selected a new presiding municipal judge last year.

Taylor said he hoped the compliance program was the first step in a broader initiative.

“There are other things that we will be looking at comprehensively with a very similar approach,” he said. “We’ll be taking a look at virtually every aspect of what we do.”

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