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Seabrook Island to enroll unpaid court fines in active collection program; town names incoming finance director
Summary
The town will move unpaid court fines into the GEAR collections program to pursue active recovery and has offered the finance director position to Amber Howard, who will start Oct. 27, staff said at the Dec. 30 council meeting.
Town officials told Seabrook Island’s council on Dec. 30 that they will shift unpaid court fines into a more active collections program and that a new finance director will join staff.
Town clerk/treasurer Pete said staff discovered discrepancies in reported fund balances and will correct the August and September financial statements for publication at the October meeting. Pete said the town has a small number of uncollected court fines (about seven accounts), typically fines issued by the municipal judge that can be over $1,000. Because these fines have proven difficult to collect under the town’s current set‑off debt program, the town will enroll these accounts in the GEAR (government enterprise accounts receivable) program, which staff described as a more active collections system that can include phone calls, mailed notices and, where appropriate, bank levies.
Administrator Joe announced that Amber Howard has accepted an offer to become the town’s new finance director and will start Oct. 27, coming from more than a decade of finance work at the College of Charleston; a formal introduction is planned at the October meeting. Joe also briefed the council on budget-timing: the FY2026 draft budget is substantially complete and staff expects to deliver it to council this week ahead of a workshop scheduled for Oct. 20.
Pete summarized the collections change: the current set‑off debt program attaches only to individual income-tax refunds and does not reach business accounts; GEAR can pursue a broader set of collection methods. Pete said the town has about seven accounts in unpaid status and that staff expects GEAR will improve recoveries rather than relying solely on set‑off debt.
What happens next: staff will publish corrected financials for August and September at the next meeting, enroll the unpaid accounts in GEAR and formally introduce Amber Howard at the October council meeting.
