Town uses website list to shame scofflaws

Sabina Maziarz knew she would pay a penalty when a $400 check she wrote in November to the Sharon School Department bounced, but did not realize her name and address would be posted on the Internet for all to see.

"It's so embarrassing," Maziarz said of the "roster of bad checks" on the town's website. "What is the purpose of this? To let people know that this person is a big, fat loser?"

Not exactly, said Robert J. Uyttebroek, the town treasurer, who started listing bounced checks online last year. Sharon's website, www.townofsharon.net, has a link to public notices. From there, the list is just a click away.

The bad check list in Sharon holds all up to scrutiny -- from the three people who bounced $2 checks to the resident who did not have funds to cover one for $1,620. The goal, Uyttebroek said, is to "shame them into paying" for fees and services, plus penalties.

"This is my advertisement for all the bad checks out there," he said.

Maziarz and about 90 other people and businesses, whose checks were returned because of insufficient funds, owe the town about $13,000 including penalties. Some bills have gone unpaid for five years.

Municipalities throughout New England, particularly smaller, rural towns, have long made a practice of publishing a list of property tax deadbeats in annual reports. But the Sharon's list apparently is the first attempt to target people who write bad checks.

Uyttebroek predicted that such tactics will grow in popularity as more officials "develop uses of the Internet as a bulletin board."

People often make good on their debts once they discover their indiscretions have gone global, Uyttebroek said. "They want to clear it up," he said. "They want to get their names off [the website] as soon as possible." Uyttebroek, who said he conceived the online list as a way to increase revenue while avoiding costly court proceedings, sends each check writer a letter requesting payment. The notice does not mention that failure to respond will result in a website posting, he said, but offenders often find out because Sharon is relatively small -- population about 18,000 -- and people tend to talk about other people's business.

"They'll come in and tell me, `I didn't know [my name] was there, but my neighbor told me about it,' or, `Someone at church told me,' " he said.

Uyttebroek said he has the authority to list people's names "whether it's $2 or $2,000 (they owe). It's still a receipt that I have to go after." He said he told other local officials what he intended to do and "nobody said I couldn't."

W. Michael Hoffman, executive director of the Center for Business Ethics at Bentley College in Waltham, said it isn't unethical for government officials to "publicly embarrass" people who owe money as long as the "citizens have been notified that [a web posting] is a consequence of writing a check with insufficient funds."

"Then they could debate the policy, because the citizens are paying the salaries of the people who decided to put their names on a website," he said. But posting personal information without prior notification "takes a step beyond what I would call an ethically sensitive act," Hoffman said.

Sharon resident Jill R. Carlson's name is on the list because the $140 check Carlson wrote Sept. 26 for a school busing fee failed to clear. She found out about the website last week from a reporter. "This makes me feel sort of like a criminal," Carlson said. "I think I've bounced one, maybe two checks in my life. I don't think it should be displayed on a website . . . but I certainly will pay." So will Maziarz. "I'm humiliated," she said. "I've got to run right down to the Town Hall."

Uyttebroek is counting on more people having similar reactions. To the town treasurer, overdue guilt is like money in the bank.

Mark Pothier can be reached at mpothier@globe.com.