DAYTON, Tenn.-Rhea County commissioners have asked the Circuit Court clerk to recommend a plan to collect about $2.3 million in unpaid fines and court fees.
Circuit Court Clerk Jamie Holloway told commissioners during their workshop session this week that he has spent considerable time since he took office Sept. 1, 2010, researching the matter. He said he believes the county would be better served by hiring a collection agency to pursue the debt than to attempt collections using his staff.
“Coffee County does it [collections] in-house, but they hired two staff members to do that,” he said. “Knox County used a collection agency, then brought it in-house and has gone back to using an agency.”
Holloway pointed out that hiring staff would incur fixed costs with no guarantee of collections. On the other hand, the collection agency would be paid a percentage of what is collected, so there would be no fixed cost to the county.
“I think it is in the county’s best interest to use a collection agency and give them a percentage and us get the rest,” he said. “That’s better than nothing.”