A. Pursuant to the authority conferred by virtue of the Illinois Constitution, the Illinois Municipal Code and Section 1-2-1 thereof, the Village hereby authorizes and directs the Finance Director to determine which fines, penalties, accounts receivable, taxes, user charges, utility charges or other financial obligations which may be owed the Village in any form or for any reason (collectively, "Debt") should be considered for any form of collection. The Finance Director is authorized to submit any such Debt to any judicial or legal proceeding for collection, or to submit the Debt to a collection agency approved by the Village Board for any form of civil debt recovery, or to submit the Debt to any program maintained by any other unit of government, including but not limited to the State of Illinois, for the purpose of Debt recovery (including but not limited to the Illinois Debt Recovery Offset Program). The Finance Director may adopt such rules and regulations as shall be necessary to effectuate this Section, including but not limited to evaluating Debt on a per-class basis or case by case basis to determine its appropriateness for submission to a recovery methodology.
B. Any costs incurred by the Village by virtue of such collection activities or debt recovery program (including but not limited to collection fees, court costs, legal fees, staff costs, notice costs or any other costs whatsoever) shall be borne exclusively by the person(s) owing the Debt to the Village, and shall be assessed against such person(s) as a charge due and owing to the Village in addition to the underlying Debt. All such charges shall be required to be fully satisfied and extinguished before the Debt shall be released (and before any related enforcement methodology shall be released), except as provided in subsection (C) below.
C. The Finance Director and/or Village Manager shall have the authority to determine or declare that any Debt is not probable of recovery and to write-off such Debt or discontinue collection methodology. The Finance Director and/or Village Manager, shall also have the authority to compromise or settle any Debt or obligation owed the Village, and to accept partial or liquidated payment in exchange for a partial or complete release thereof. The limit of such authority for write-off or compromise is one thousand dollars ($1,000). Any individual Debt in excess of the aforesaid spending authority shall require the approval of the Village Board to discharge or write-off. With regard to any case or action implemented as an action or administrative hearing which is prosecuted by the Village Attorney, the Village Attorney shall be authorized to settle, resolve or compromise any fine, penalty or other Debt imposed therein, without limitation, as a matter of prosecutorial discretion. (Ord. 2019-O-29, 8-19-2019)