Allegany County sets public hearing for traffic diversion local law, approves contract with vendor

Allegany County officials voted to set a public hearing on a proposed local law that would formalize fees and collection procedures for the county’s traffic diversion program, and separately approved a contract with Traffic Diversion Management LLC to administer the program.

County Administrator (Speaker 5) said the proposed local law would set the fees and clarify how traffic diversion fees are collected. The draft was modeled after Steuben County’s law and has the support of the acting district attorney. Speaker 6 described the traffic diversion program as an alternative to a guilty plea for certain tickets (for example, cell-phone violations): participants take a driver-safety course, pay a local fee and may receive a 10–15% collision-insurance discount for a limited period.

Board members discussed whether municipalities that currently receive portions of diversion-related funds would continue to do so. Speaker 5 pointed to section 3(e) and section 4 of the draft law, which reference agreements with towns and disbursement of service charges. The acting district attorney was cited as supporting the $250 fee proposed in the draft.

Separately, the board approved a contract with Traffic Diversion Management LLC to run the county’s diversion program. Speaker 5 said the vendor also runs Steuben County’s program; the contract compensates the vendor at 15% of the application fee or $30 per file, whichever is greater. The DA’s office staff turnover and administrative workload were cited as reasons for outsourcing program administration.

The board set a public hearing on the local law; the record shows the county will follow its usual public-notice procedures for hearing logistics.