City of Port Arthur
Memorandum

ro~

Mayor and City

From:

Steve

Date:

April 11, 2002

Re:

PR 11740

C.,
9rufl~.cil

Fitzgibborf~,~
ity Manager

Recommendation
11740 which authorizes an
I recommend that the City Council adopt Proposed Resolution
Associates to review municipal court fine
agreement for the services of Gayle W. Botley &
of citations and the receipt and reporting
revenue to include number of citations issued, disposition

of fmc

revenue

and bonds.

Background
over last years' levels. I feel that it
has declined 39%
to determine why
would be beneficial to have a review of our process by an outside auditor to try
is
the current audit
Associates
W. Botley &
revenues have declined so drastically. The firm Gayle
a cost not to exceed
firm of the City. I am asking that they be engaged for this special study at

As of February

5,
000.

28, 2002, court fine

revenue

 P.
R. 11740
4/
02
11/JJA
RESOLUTION NO.
A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AN AGREEMENT
WITH GAYLE W. BOTLEY & ASSOCIATES FOR A

OF

REVIEW

THE

RECEIPT

MUNICIPAL

OF

COURT FINES

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PORT ARTHUR:
THAT the
execute

on

City Manager

behalf of the

Associates for
THAT

a

City

City of Port Arthur is hereby authorized and directed to

of Port Arthur

review of the

by signature

of the

an

agreement between the City and Gayle W.Botley

receipt of municipal

of this

court fines

resolution,the parties

as

and
described in Exhibit "A";

agree to the

procedures

as

outlined in

Exhibit "
A";
and,
THAT

Gayle

W.Botley

with Section 720.002

comply

THAT

a

copy of the

& Associates, in obtaining this budgetary information, will

Transportation Code, a copy of which is

caption of this resolution

be

spread

attached

as

".
Exhibit B
"

upon the Minutes of the

City

Council.

READ,ADOPTED,AND APPROVED,this

Regular Meeting
AYES:

of the

City Council

of the

at
D.,
day of April,2002, A.

City of Port Arthur,Texas by

Mayor:

Councilmembers:

NOES:

Mayor
ATTEST:

Jan

Stroder, Acting City Secretary

the

following

a

vote:

 APPROVED AS TO FORM:

Mark Sokolow, City Attorney

APPROVED:

Stephen Fitzgibbons, City Manager

Gayle

W.Botley and Associates, CPAs
AS TO AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS:

PROVED

Rebecca

Underhill,Finance Director

 PAGE

GAYLE W BOTLEY

4898668
962-

84/
2882
11/ 11:38

82

ERHIBIT

Gayle W.Botley

Associates

z,
Pub~
.~
mw~
u
O_.
ert~

Me~
ber ofAlOPg~

April 11, 2002

CRy ofPonArthur
DkectorofFinance
RebeccaUnder~ll,
P.
O.Box 1089
TX?
7641Port Arthur, 1069
F,RECEIPT OF MUNICIPAL COURT FINES
SUBJECT: REVIEW OF T~
Dear Ms. Underhill:
I

am

pleased

issue this

estimate of 00
$
3,
200. based

correspondence

we

10, 2002 and our phone conversation today. This engagement would
agreed-upon procedures engagement with a list of procedures attached.

be

to

preliminsry

on April
r~
ived
c~

considered

an

on

your

Our estimate is based on the limit~
information pertaining to the citations provided to us
represeming October, 2001 Through December, 2001. We understand the period of the
rch 31, 2002.
2001 and ends M~
engsfiemcm begins October 1,

Sincerely

Assocm~'
iit~
ayle W.Botley & t~

A

 STEPHEN FITZGIBBONS

OSCfR G. ORTIZ, MAYOR

CITY MANAGER

FELIX A. BARKER, MAYOR PRO-TEM

JAN STRODER
ACTING CITY SECRETARY

COUNCIL MEMBERS:

City of

CRAIG HANNAH
THOMAS J.HENDERSON

MARK T. SOKOLOW

CITY ATTORNEY

TOM GILLAM, III
REV. RONNIE LINDEN
BOB BOWERS
ROSE MITCHELL CHAISSON
ROBERT E. ALLEN

April 10, 2002
Gayle Botley, CPA
4749 Twin City Highway, Suite
Port

280

Arthur,Texas 77642

Dear Mr.Botley:
that impact the
City Manager is interested in engaging your finn to review City operations
of
citations
of the number
issued,
receipt of court frees. This review should include an evaluation
and
bonds.
fine
revenues
of
and
the
and
the disposition of the citations,
reporting
receipt
The

belief that court fines should be viewed solely as a revenue source for the city,
over the
however, the City is concerned, as revenue from court fines has declined significantly
last several months and is considerably behind last year's pace. Last year's revenue was not out
even
of line and represented less than lA of the court revenue that the City of Beaumont received
Based upon the decline experienced thus
is more than ½ of Beaumont's.
our
It is not

though

our

population

far,we will lag

even

further behind Beaumont this fiscal year.

As you know any contract between your firm and the

city would need Council approval.

forward to working with you again.

Sincerely,

Director of Finance

RO. BOX 1089 ·

409/
983409/
983- ·FAX 8291
PORTARTHUR, TEXAS 77641-1089 · Bl15

We look

 EXHIBIT B

TRANSPORTATION CODE

720.002

Title 7

720.002. Prohibition

on

TrafficOffense Quotas

a)A political subdivision or an agency of this state may not establish or
maintain, formally or informally, a plan to evaluate, promote, compensate, or

discipline:
1)a

peace

specified

off!cer according

number of any type

2)a justice of the peace

the officer's issuance of a predetermined
combination of types of traffic citations;

to

or
or

a

judge

of

a

or
or

county court, statutory county

municipal court of record according to the amount
judge collects from persons convicted of a traffic

court, municipal court, or

of money the justicc
offense.

or

b)A political subdivision or an agency of this state may not require or
or a judge of a county court,
suggest to a peace officer, a justice of the peace,
or
municipal court of record:
statutory county court, municipal court,
that the
l)
or

required

peace officer is

number of any type

specified
a specified period; or
2)that the justice or judge

or

or

to issue

expected

a

predetermined

combination of types of traffic citations

within

mined

amount

is

required

or

expected

of money from persons convicted of

a

tO

collect

a

predeter-

traffic offense within

a

specified period.
c)Subsection ( a)does

not

prohibit

a

the

municipality from considering

source and amount of money collected from a municipal court or a municipal
court of record when evaluating the performance of a judge employed by the

municipality.

prohibit a municipality
municipal court or a municipal

d)This section does
information from

a

not

estimate of the amount of money the court

an

budget

not

an

anticipates will be collected

in

a

elected official is misconduct and a
for removal from office. A violation of this section by a person who is
elected official is a ground for removal from the person's position.

In this
f)

an

section:

means the rendition of
1)Conviction"
"
or a fine.
incarceration
of
punishment

offense"means
2)Traffic
"
A)Chapter 521; or
B)Subtitle C)
Acts 1995, 74th
1

obtaining budgetary
of record, including

year.

e)A violation of this section by

ground

from
court

an

an

order

by

a

court

imposing

offense under:

Leg.,ch. 165, § 1, eft. Sept. 1, 1995.

V.
C.
T.
A
Transportation Code § 541.001

et

seq.

Revisor's Note
V.
C.
A.Article 6701d-25,refers to a "system, program,
S
1)Subsection (a),
or plan." The references to " system" and "program" are omitted from the
revised law because "system" and "program"are included within the meaning

of "plan."

346

a