The city’s latest crackdown on municipal court deadbeats has netted some of Seattle’s biggest scofflaws—but with a surprise twist: They’re city workers, some of them employed by the court itself, and some of them judges. There are also legal aides and police personnel with unpaid fines exceeding $1,000. And in the Parks Department lurks Leonard M. Stanton, one of the city’s all-time payment-dodgers. Stanton’s tab for parking and traffic fines over the past five years exceeds $10,000. Collection fees and interest raise the total to $15,000.

All told, hundreds of city employees may owe more than $1.2 million of the court’s $30 million in unpaid tickets, although many of them can’t, or won’t, be paying. Stanton, for one, likely won’t be settling up soon. Like dozens of other big Park Department debtors on the crackdown list, Stanton was only briefly a seasonal worker (paid $5.69 an hour for one month in 1995) and hasn’t been seen in three years. “He was a homeless individual who worked for the Seattle Conservation Corps for sometime,” says John Prinos, who helps run the program for the Parks Department, where almost 200 workers owe $145,000 in unpaid tickets and fines (five alone owe $24,900, not counting fees and interest). “We’re a work-experience training program for homeless adults, and I think a number of the people on that list were similar temporary workers. Wherever they are, I doubt any of them have the money to pay.”

Conversely, Donald B. Kronenberg has the money. But he won’t pay, either. The municipal court judge pro-tem and private attorney owes $330 for tickets he got while bicycling (two other pro-tems, Helga Kahr and Mark Panitch, owe $40 each). But a defiant Kronenberg sounds a lot like the defendants who might appear in his court. “The city’s collection agency defaulted me, but they sent the notice to the wrong address,” says the fill-in judge. “I’ve gone round and round with them—the collection agency is in the same building as me—and they’ve just ignored my letters. So I haven’t paid. They can hassle me all they want, it’s up to them now.”

If a judge can’t beat the rap, what hope is there for the rest of us? That’s the message court administrator and crackdown czar Ken Klimusko hopes to send his fellow employees and the public. “Starting at home with city employees seems consistent to most members of the public,” he says. “Generally, the public has responded favorably to an even-handed yet firm approach on [collection] issues.” He’s plainly aware that not everyone pays their muni tickets (the city wrote off $17 million in uncollected fines last year, a figure expected to drop to $12 million this year). But aggressive collection efforts including ticket amnesties and garnishment have begun to chip away at the court’s historic delinquency rolls. “We collected $7.4 million for the court last year,” says Howard George, vice president of Continental Credit Services, the city’s hired collection gun. “This year, we’re on track to bring in $8 million. It has gone steadily upwards in the six years we’ve been doing this.”

The court brings in around $20 million annually, mostly from the 70 percent of violators who pay promptly. Others are like a city worker named Lisa, who owes $4,391, excluding fees and interest, and finds Continental’s customer-relations less than accommodating. In two registered letters, she says, she asked Continental “if I can pay the court directly and bypass their organization, meaning could I pay the original fine without interest and handling, in one lump sum to the court?” Continental’s only reply, she says, was a demanding phone message at work and a “form letter that informed me I had until June 15 to ‘make arrangements.'” For payments or a funeral? she wondered.

If it’s any consolation to her, Continental has just lost its city contract to SCA Credit. The new collector takes over in August if its low bid gets final approval, although Continental’s George is holding out for a reversal. “We’re experienced, they’re not,” he says.

Meanwhile, collection notices and garnishment threats are now going out to 547 city workers who together owe a little more than $300,000, mostly for parking tickets; another $948,000 will be collected either from city employees or the people who drive those employees’ cars (officials are cross-checking with the state Licensing Department to determine precisely who shall pay, says court spokesperson Tricia Stoppenbrink). Like Stanton the $10,000 man, the second-biggest court debtor on the city list, James Estep of the Utilities Department, can’t be found; he owes $7,800 in unpaid fines.

Other leading scofflaws getting their due notices include the Mayor’s Office worker who owes $2,200, the Law Department aide who owes $2,300, a transportation worker owing $2,000, and several employees in the Police and Fire Departments with more than $1,000 in unpaid fines. They will all be given a month to pay up or agree to payment plans. The one city employee most likely to pay, however, is a utility worker named Martha. She’s on the list of those Klimusko calls “individuals on the city payroll who are seriously delinquent on fines.” Martha is seriously delinquent for all of $3.45. She was on vacation last week, but a woman answering her phone said she was surprised: “Martha, an archcriminal? We never knew.”