Quantico out $20K in parking tickets

By AILEEN STRENG
For the Stafford County Sun
Published: August 27, 2008

QUANTICO — A total of 838 parking tickets, worth $20,450, written by the town of Quantico’s police officers since 2005 remain uncollected or unaccounted for, according to an audit of the police summons.

The Quantico Town Council recently received the audit review conducted by its internal auditor, Donna A. Culbertson, a certified public accountant.
Culbertson compared the information from the paper ticket books from 2005 through April 30 with the police department’s computer bookkeeping records and the municipal office’s computer records.

She found numerous irregularities.

“The Police Department’s QuickBooks file [accounting software] provided to the Municipal Office as of April 30, 2008, is not accurate based on actual tickets written,“ Culbertson wrote in the review.  In some cases, the ticket information was never recorded into the computers or was recorded incorrectly or incompletely. In other cases, tickets paid were not properly documented or applied to the ticket.

Additionally, 121 tickets were voided and not properly recorded. Many of the voided tickets remained in the computer file listed as outstanding fees owed.
Quantico Police Chief Gerald Tolson has held his position for four years on a part-time basis. He oversees two full-time and three part-time police officers.

Tolson could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Quantico Mayor Iris Tharp said she continues to support him.

“The chief feels really bad about the situation and has been very involved with all of this.

He is working with us to make sure it doesn’t happen again,“ Tharp said.

Tharp and Quantico Treasurer Debra Kidwell said this week that steps have already been taken to address the problems highlighted in the review.

“It’s all going to be resolved. We have a new system,“ Tharp said.

“We are working to get a good system in place,“ Kidwell said. “We’re going to be more aggressive in collecting.“

Still, there are those in the town who want more done. After the audit review was presented during a public town meeting earlier this month, a town resident turned it over to the Virginia State Police asking for an investigation.

“An investigation has not been initiated at this time,“ said Corinne Geller, spokeswoman for the state police, on Tuesday. “The information provided by the concerned citizen was turned over to the State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s Fairfax Field Office for review and evaluation.“

However, the supervisor responsible for conducting that review and deciding if it will be investigated is currently out of the office and on vacation. No decision will be made until the supervisor returns, she said.

Tharp, who took office in July, said that she asked for the audit review when the town police department lost its administrative assistant in early summer. The
assistant was responsible for following up on the ticket paper work and logging the information into the police department’s computer system.