Parking tickets left to pile up in the glove box will not magically go away.

One particular campus area is plagued with parking violators.

Because people don’t read the sign, Garden Road is the site where the most people get tickets, said DeKalb Parking Clerk Cindy Kreutziger.

Garden Road is home to Barsema Hall and the Engineering Building.

DeKalb has procedures to assure it collects from parking violators. When a parking ticket is not paid the parking clerk sends the ticket to collections.

RRCA Accounts Management then collects from delinquents.

If 10 or more tickets go unpaid, the clerk refers the file to legal so the perpetrator can be brought to court.

What are the consequences of 10 or more parking tickets?

DeKalb’s legal department will then make one final attempt for contact and give the driver a set deadline to contact the city to set up a payment plan. Most cases go to court because there is no correspondence, said Assistant City Attorney Dawn Didier.

The payment plan is a last chance and consequently strictly punishes missed payments.

When a payment is missed, DeKalb immediately files a case against the perpetual parking violator, Didier said.

If a judgment is made against someone, his or her driver’s license can be suspended, according to Didier.

An impending driver’s license suspension notice is delivered informing the defendants they have 45 days to pay in full. If payment is not received, DeKalb notifies the Secretary of State, who promptly suspends that person’s license.

The license is suspended until the ticket is paid in full, Didlier said.

The costs of court are added to the amount, so a $30 ticket becomes $55 for court costs, Kreutziger said.

Most people settle the debt before receiving legal consequences.

“It is not that common that it gets to that point,” said Attorney Tim Conklin, from the Foster and Buick Law Group, LLC, 151 W. Lincoln Highway.

Overall, three letters are sent before prosecution; two come from parking and one from legal.

Parking violators owe DeKalb $60,424 in unpaid tickets, DeKalb Comptroller Ted Kozinski said. Money collected from parking tickets in DeKalb does not serve any specific purpose but rather goes into the general fund.

“We have payment plans and we try to work with people,” Kreutziger said.