(A) The Office of the County Prosecuting Attorney shall impose a service charge for each unpaid and dishonored check processed by and through the above-referenced procedure, to be paid by the payor of the unpaid or dishonored check for which notice is sent pursuant to state law.
(B) The service charge shall be in an amount as the Prosecuting Attorney may stipulate and fix on a uniform basis (which charge may be a fixed dollar amount or a percentage of the value of the bad check, but which may not exceed the amount permitted under
state law
to cover the costs of providing the services which the charge shall be reasonably related to the costs associated with exercising the regulatory power).
(C) All services charges collected by the Office of the County Prosecuting Attorney provided for by this section once collected, are considered County General Fund Miscellaneous Revenue. The charges shall be remitted by the County Prosecuting Attorney to the County Auditor on a monthly basis, and the County Auditor is hereby authorized to establish and maintain a Prosecutor’s Service Charge Fund, and the charges collected by the Prosecutor’s Office shall be deposited into the Fund. The County Prosecutor’s Office shall expend and submit claims for payments of expenses pursuant to the bad check budget submitted by the County Prosecutor’s Office and approved annually by the County Council. The County Council may only appropriate moneys on deposit in the Prosecutor’s Service Charge Fund for purposes of the Prosecutor’s Office, although the appropriations may be made for any purpose for which county moneys lawfully may be appropriated to the Prosecutor’s office and need not necessarily be limited to directly attributable costs of the functions and services from which the charges derive.
(D) When the County Prosecuting Attorney has implemented a bad check collection service authorized by this section, he or she may establish and maintain a public funds checking account (trust account) into which he or she shall deposit the principal amount of any bad check which he or she collects from the issuer thereof on behalf of the payee or holder. Checks from the accounts may be written to the payee or holder of the bad check to whom the money is lawfully due without appropriation.
(Ord. 1995-8, passed 11-15-1995)