BY JEFF CHUDZINSKI
North Country This Week

CANTON — County legislators on the Operations Committee have taken steps to consolidate debt collection efforts.

Legislators approved a contract with Falcon Recovery Systems, LLC in an effort to consolidate collection work under one contract.

The resolution was approved during the committee’s Feb. 13 meeting.

Officials say the amount owed has been written off, however the amount due is placed in the file of the client in an effort to collect payment on the off chance they return for services in the future.

In 2021 alone, $5,048 was written off for drug testing fees, while $6,545.27 was written off for supervision fees.

That total, $11,593.27 was written off last year in resolution number 76-2022, officials say.

In 2022 an additional $11,053.75 in bad debt, all from 2016, was written off.

That bad debt from 2016 amounted to $5,864.75 for drug testing fees and $5,189 for supervision fees, according to the resolution.

Officials say the write offs will assist with accounting practices, however collection efforts on the debt will continue.

“It doesn’t mean we don’t stop our attempt to collect it. If they go back on probation, we will still try to collect past stuff on top of whatever the sentence may be,” Tim Lepage, probation director said.

Legislators questioned whether there were punitive measures that could be taken to ensure that individuals on probation pay their fees.

According to Lepage, short of restitution, there is very little that can be done. Individuals must be released from probation when they have served their time, whether the fees have been paid or not.

“Like I said, other than restitution the courts tend to only collect through restitution,” he said.

Legislators also questioned whether the local law that does not allow collection of such debts in most cases could be changed to allow the county to take further steps in such cases.

Though Count Attorney Steve Button said it is possible to amend the law, the process could prove to be difficult and nuanced.

Though debt is being written off in consecutive years, Lepage said the collection rate has increased continually since he took over the department in 2013.

Collections have risen from 70% to just over 81% last year, he said.

In cases when debts are sent our for collection, Lepage said agencies don’t have a high success rate.

“Generally what they collect, what we send them to collect, I don’t think they put forth a great effort to collect it,” he said.

In many cases, the debt being collected is not in the thousands but rather in the “four to five hundred dollar, maybe a thousand dollar range,” he said.

In the instances debt is sent to collectors, those companies are also not paid until they collect and are only paid on what they collect.

“Many of the fees are not very expensive, drug testing is a $50. So for them to collect that fee, it’s really not worth it to them,” he said.