Philosophy Statement and Business Focus

Since Municipal Management Associates was founded in 1979 it has always been its goal to add value to local government by providing state-of-the-art financial applications that focus on maximizing revenue at the lowest cost possible.

For its first 25 years the company defined its clients as Massachusetts' cities and towns who were looking to: 1.) improve the efficiency of their local revenue billing and collection systems; or 2.) collect unpaid delinquent taxes or utility bills. Today, the company is focusing its business in the area of parking enforcement and seeking to market its services beyond the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to other cities and towns in New England and eventually to municipalities throughout the Northeast.

For its first seven and one-half years the company operated from its offices at 763 Massachusetts Avenue in Central Square, Cambridge. This was an excellent location because the company's first and largest client, the City of Cambridge, was located next door. After outgrowing its offices in Cambridge , the company moved in January 1985 to a brand new office building at 221 Boston Post Road East, Marlborough where it remained for the next 19½ years. Since October 2004 the company has been operating from its new headquarters located at 293 Boston Post Road West, Marlborough.

The company has always developed its own software applications. By earning its revenue as a service bureau, Municipal Management Associates learned early that the key to winning and retaining loyal clients was to provide exceptional customer service and to continually improve and customize its software applications. This strategy has given the company an edge in developing software that its clients say has no equal in the municipal market. Today the company provides services in three major areas.

1. Parking Enforcement and Violation Processing. Municipal Management Associates is one of the few companies in the country that has completely privatized the parking enforcement operation. Employees of the company are hired to issue parking tickets, process payments, repair parking meters, collect meter coins, resolve complaints, and interface with the Registry of Motor Vehicles. The company's proprietary Citation 2000®, parking ticket processing system, and TicketWrite TM 3.0, automated ticket issuance system, are used today by more than 60 Massachusetts' cities, towns and state universities.

2. Data Processing. Acting in the capacity as an application service provider, Municipal Management Associates services cities and towns in the following revenue systems.

a. Parking Ticket Processing;
b. Real Estate taxes;
c. Personal Property taxes;
d. Motor vehicle excise taxes;
e. Boat excise taxes;
f. Water and sewer utility charges;
g. Trash user charges; and
h. Delinquent real estate and tax title collections.

3. Delinquent Collections. The company assists cities and towns in collecting past due parking tickets, utility bills and various taxes by providing specialized software applications and staffing assistance. Municipal Management's automated real estate and tax title dunning and management information system, Results 2000 ®, has collected more delinquent property tax revenue than any other service of its kind. Over the past thirty-one years, the company has helped Massachusetts cities' and towns collect over $350 million in back taxes, interest and fees. The company's Citation 2000 ® Plus program was created in March 2001 to focus on the collection of old unpaid parking tickets. Currently, 37 cities and towns subscribe to this service and have collected over $3.75 million in old parking tickets that may never have been collected.

Statement of Approach

Municipal Management Associates acknowledges that parking tickets are a thorny issue with motorists, downtown merchants, policemen, as well as elected officials. The only thing that motorists detest more than receiving a parking ticket is receiving a delinquent notice that the fine has increased due to late and penalty fees being added, yet motorists want the city to insure the availability of convenient parking spaces and enforcement of illegal parking that jeopardizes their safety. Municipal Management Associates has a wide range of parking payment options that make it convenient and easy for the motorist to avoid late fees and to pay for those tickets that they do receive.

Merchants want to provide easy access to public parking spaces within a convenient and short distance from their business establishment yet they look to the municipality for enforcement to insure that the employees that work in their downtown stores and offices do not hog these spaces and make them unavailable for paying customers. Municipal Management Associates has programs in place that communicate and work closely with the downtown merchants to insure the availability of both on-street and off-street parking spaces.

Policemen acknowledge that violations of parking ordinances is a matter of importance that must be enforced yet police officers are specially trained sworn officers whose primary duties are to protect the public and enforce all laws and ordinances. Asking policemen to dedicate a significant portion of their time to parking enforcement matters is often considered demeaning to their position and a misuse of the city's valuable resources. Municipal Management Associates can relieve the city of this responsibility by training parking enforcement officers to fairly and effectively monitor the city's parking spaces.

Elected officials depend upon the votes of their neighbors to hold public office so they can implement improvements within the city yet they are subject to complaints from residents who either cannot find convenient parking spaces or receive parking tickets. There is no doubt that elected officials work tirelessly to develop and promote a vibrant and busy downtown for the economic benefit of all its residents and visitors. Elected officials expect parking enforcement to be operated without bias or favoritism throughout the city yet all parking violations should have a built-in appeal process that is fair and compassionate. Parking fines and late fees are set to be nominal, or slightly more, with expectation that they are paid promptly. Municipal Management Associates has a track record of performing the parking enforcement duties with a minimum of complaints from the public so this thorny issue is a non-issue for the city's elected officials.

During calendar year 2009 all of Municipal Management Associates' Citation 2000® parking ticket processing clients collected an average of 96.62% of their fines. This collection percentage is outstanding considering that a collection percentage in the mid-to-high seventy percentile is the norm for the industry and a collection percentile in the eighty percentile is considered excellent. Municipal Management Associates has diligently worked to perfect its Citation 2000 ® parking ticket processing and collection service. These results confirm that when it comes to maximizing revenue Municipal Management is the undisputed leader in collecting parking tickets for Massachusetts' cities, towns and state universities.