- The site is masquerading as a City of Los Angeles entity. Yet the domain is owned and the servers managed by ACS State and Local Services. There are quite specific laws regarding the use of the city's seal, among other things that preclude private entities using it.
- The $2 "processing fee" attached to phone and web payments is of unknown provenance. This fee most likely dramatically improving ACS's profit on the project. Anyone with retailer processing experience knows the fees paid to the payment backend (e.x. Visa/Mastercard) is in the pennies.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Procedural Brainstorming
Some procedural details that probably run afoul of numerous city laws in ways yet known.
LDC Collection Systems
If you have been unfortunate enough to get a parking ticket, pay it on time, yet receive a collections letter from "LDC Collection Systems" stating you have a balance due on a ticket then you have been contacted by another Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) subsidiary.
There is no published way to contact said agency to correct the matter via phone, U.S. Postal Service, or email. One must go to a parking enforcement office. Those offices appear to be run by Affiliated Computer Services in some way.
This ellusive yet omnipresent entity LDC Collection Systems appears to have no home on the web or physical address other than a post office box 30087 in ZIP code 90030-0087. Court documents reveal the entity is in fact a subsidiary of ACS.
Reader To Do: obtain physical contact information for "LDC Collection Systems" (e.g. Name, phone numbers)
There is no published way to contact said agency to correct the matter via phone, U.S. Postal Service, or email. One must go to a parking enforcement office. Those offices appear to be run by Affiliated Computer Services in some way.
This ellusive yet omnipresent entity LDC Collection Systems appears to have no home on the web or physical address other than a post office box 30087 in ZIP code 90030-0087. Court documents reveal the entity is in fact a subsidiary of ACS.
Reader To Do: obtain physical contact information for "LDC Collection Systems" (e.g. Name, phone numbers)
L.A. City Parking Enforcement Payment
One of the fundamental problems with contractors is their hostility to providing customer service. Contact information is very hard to find for the elusive yet omnipresent ACS State and Local Services.
ACS State and Local operates the website https://wmq.etimspayments.com This is where someone who received a parking violation in the city of Los Angeles would pay their ticket.
It has been non-responsive for the past 3 hours at the time of writing. If it is non-responsive, I suggest using their phone system for paying your ticket at 866-561-9742. You could also call Gary at ACS State and Local Solutions. I don't recommend email. His information is below.
ACS State and Local operates the website https://wmq.etimspayments.com This is where someone who received a parking violation in the city of Los Angeles would pay their ticket.
It has been non-responsive for the past 3 hours at the time of writing. If it is non-responsive, I suggest using their phone system for paying your ticket at 866-561-9742. You could also call Gary at ACS State and Local Solutions. I don't recommend email. His information is below.
OrgName: ACS State and Local Solutions
OrgID: ASLS-3
Address: 777 Old Saw Mill River Road
City: Tarrytown
StateProv: NY
PostalCode: 10591
Country: US
NetRange: 138.69.0.0 - 138.69.255.255
CIDR: 138.69.0.0/16
NetName: ACSSLS
NetHandle: NET-138-69-0-0-1
Parent: NET-138-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: AUTH01.NS.UU.NET
NameServer: AUTH61.NS.UU.NET
Comment:
RegDate: 1996-03-06
Updated: 2005-01-12
OrgTechHandle: GTD-ARIN
OrgTechName: Dulin, Gary Thomas
OrgTechPhone: +1-914-789-6230
OrgTechEmail: gary.dulin@acs-inc.com
I left a message for Gary this morning telling him his site has been non-responsive for about 3 hours. It would be nice to hear back fom Gary.
ACS State and Local Solutions Research #1
What is publicly available regarding the contractor "ACS State and Local Solutions" on this date is as follows:
Litigation
Justia.com has a very nice list of Federal district court litigation open with ACS State and Local Solutions involved. http://dockets.justia.com/search?q=ACS+State+and+Local+Solutions%2C+Inc.
ACS State and Local Solutions Corporate Info
"ACS State and Local Solutions" is a subsidiary of "Affiliated Computer Services" Their web site. http://www.acs-inc.com/ They are Fortune 500 big with publicly traded stock. That means they have the financial resources to land the City of Los Angeles' Parking enforcement payment contract. The make-up of "ACS State and Local Solutions" is not yet known.
According to Yahoo! Finance they are under some financial distress having lost +30% of their market value. Insiders of the company have been selling too. As their market cap goes down, their debt obligations become a bigger daily operations issue. It's unclear how their subsidiary "ACS State and Local Solutions" plays into that.
Los Angeles Activity for ACS State and Local Solutions
As published by the Los Angeles City Ethics committee, ACS has a hired lobbyist and has given campaign contributions to city officials. (Enter acs in the last name box) It appears Mannatt, Phelps and Phillips was their last lobbying contractor.
What does this mean? Not much. It's publicly available facts. If you have more facts regarding the interaction of ACS State and Local Solutions and the City of Los Angeles, please post them as comments.
Litigation
Justia.com has a very nice list of Federal district court litigation open with ACS State and Local Solutions involved. http://dockets.justia.com/search?q=ACS+State+and+Local+Solutions%2C+Inc.
ACS State and Local Solutions Corporate Info
"ACS State and Local Solutions" is a subsidiary of "Affiliated Computer Services" Their web site. http://www.acs-inc.com/ They are Fortune 500 big with publicly traded stock. That means they have the financial resources to land the City of Los Angeles' Parking enforcement payment contract. The make-up of "ACS State and Local Solutions" is not yet known.
According to Yahoo! Finance they are under some financial distress having lost +30% of their market value. Insiders of the company have been selling too. As their market cap goes down, their debt obligations become a bigger daily operations issue. It's unclear how their subsidiary "ACS State and Local Solutions" plays into that.
Los Angeles Activity for ACS State and Local Solutions
As published by the Los Angeles City Ethics committee, ACS has a hired lobbyist and has given campaign contributions to city officials. (Enter acs in the last name box) It appears Mannatt, Phelps and Phillips was their last lobbying contractor.
What does this mean? Not much. It's publicly available facts. If you have more facts regarding the interaction of ACS State and Local Solutions and the City of Los Angeles, please post them as comments.
City of Los Angeles & Parking Enforcement #1
Reader To Do: Who is in charge of managing the relationship with ACS State and Local Solutions for the City of Los Angeles?
The department in charge of parking enforcement in the City of Los Angeles has a web site: http://ladot.lacity.org/ According to the page http://ladot.lacity.org/about-executive-staff.htm there is a person in charge of parking, but given this is government, it's possible he had nothing to do with the contract awarded to ACS State and Local Solutions and it's management.
Now, for those unaware of how the system works, from what I have been able to gather so far, the City of Los Angeles has employees writing the tickets but contracts out all aspects of payment collecting to ACS State and Local Solutions.
For those of you with parking citation payment issues, the entity to focus on is ACS State and Local Solutions. This blog's purpose is to force some transparency into the ACS State and Local Solutions operations and the City of Los Angeles' contract with ACS State and Local Solutions.
This is where you, dear readers, come in.
Reader To Do: Find out the office contact information for the person(s) managing the daily relationship with ACS State and Local Solutions for the City of Los Angeles. Please post answers as comments.
The department in charge of parking enforcement in the City of Los Angeles has a web site: http://ladot.lacity.org/ According to the page http://ladot.lacity.org/about-executive-staff.htm there is a person in charge of parking, but given this is government, it's possible he had nothing to do with the contract awarded to ACS State and Local Solutions and it's management.
Now, for those unaware of how the system works, from what I have been able to gather so far, the City of Los Angeles has employees writing the tickets but contracts out all aspects of payment collecting to ACS State and Local Solutions.
For those of you with parking citation payment issues, the entity to focus on is ACS State and Local Solutions. This blog's purpose is to force some transparency into the ACS State and Local Solutions operations and the City of Los Angeles' contract with ACS State and Local Solutions.
This is where you, dear readers, come in.
Reader To Do: Find out the office contact information for the person(s) managing the daily relationship with ACS State and Local Solutions for the City of Los Angeles. Please post answers as comments.
Statement of Purpose
This blog's purpose is collecting and publishing facts regarding the City of Los Angeles' subcontractor and their relationship(s) with public employees working for the City of Los Angeles.
If you want to collect and publish facts on the subcontractor, their practices, and the City of Los Angeles' relationship with said contractor, then please read on.
If you wish to publish your frustrations regarding either organization, please go elsewhere. If you ignore this statement and post comments that do not contribute to more transparent and honest government and contractor operations, then your comments will be unceremoniously deleted.
If you want to collect and publish facts on the subcontractor, their practices, and the City of Los Angeles' relationship with said contractor, then please read on.
If you wish to publish your frustrations regarding either organization, please go elsewhere. If you ignore this statement and post comments that do not contribute to more transparent and honest government and contractor operations, then your comments will be unceremoniously deleted.
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