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Ethics Board Docket No.2022-695 <br /> Page 3 of 8 <br /> PayPal account on behalf of the Village to process credit and debit card payments made to the <br /> Village. <br /> 6. <br /> The Agreement authorized Ms. Carter to charge a fee per transaction not to exceed 10 <br /> percent of the amount the payor owed the Village. The fee would be a surcharge or an amount <br /> paid in addition to what the payor owed the Village. The fee would cover processing costs and <br /> equipment fees; it was also intended as compensation to Ms. Carter. The Agreement, styled as a <br /> letter, was not signed by Ms. Carter. <br /> 7. <br /> PayStar Systems ("PayStar") was a merchant account established by Ms. Carter to accept <br /> on behalf of the Village online credit and debit card payments via PayPal. Ms. Robertson asked <br /> Ms. Carter to open the account because PayPal would not allow a municipality to own an <br /> account. <br /> 8. <br /> Two types of transactions were processed through PayStar: Village water and sewer <br /> payments and payments made on citations the Village police issued for traffic violations. The <br /> PayStar account was linked to a Hodge Bank & Trust Company account titled the Village of <br /> North Hodge Utilities Systems Fund "(Utility Fund"). Payments would be held in the PayPal <br /> account until Ms. Carter initiated a transfer from the PayPal account to the Utility Fund account. <br /> 9. <br /> Initially, Ms. Carter transferred the water-sewer bill payments to the Utility Fund account <br /> and the citation payments to the General Fund account, which was also held at Hodge Bank & <br /> Trust Company. For reasons not entirely clear, that disbursal system did not work, so Ms. Carter <br />