Thoughts and discussion, anyone?
New Albany City Clerk disagrees with waiving outstanding tickets for downtown parking passes, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune)
City Clerk Marcey Wisman likes the idea of downtown parking permits in New Albany, but is opposed to waiving unpaid tickets for those who purchase a pass.
Wisman made her concerns known during Tuesday’s Board of Public Works and Safety meeting, reading aloud a letter she drafted questioning whether Mayor Doug England’s administration realizes the ramifications of waiving outstanding tickets.
“No one is ever happy about paying a parking ticket, but to change the rules to benefit a few makes it even more difficult to justify the need to pay to many others who receive them,” Wisman said.
Are most of the outstanding tickets for blocking the street sweeper? If so, a downtown parking pass purchase shouldn't negate those tickets--they are unrelated. I assume that it will still be illegal to block the sweeper even if you have a pass.
ReplyDeleteJust curious, what is the fine for a parking ticket?
ReplyDeleteWhy would you want a parking pass if you are permitted to park on the street anyway?
ReplyDeleteJust curious.
The only reason I would want one is immunity from moving my wife's car on street sweeping day and they have said they won't do that.
$10 fine. $90 late fee. Amusing.
ReplyDeleteShe has some valid points, but I still think they should waive them this once.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with Marcey, a compromise may be in order. Parking tickets waived up to the $100 permit level. Anything over that, they pay the fines. One time only.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info, lawguy.
There's no valid reason to waive them at all. We've already had a city-wide amnesty period where anyone could pay their outstanding tickets at face value with no late penalties.
ReplyDeleteWe're talking about people who've purposefully ignored parking rules as a part of their daily routine, not some poor joe who got a ticket or two. In a city with active enforcement, their vehicles would've been impounded years ago.
There is and has been low cost monthly parking available within a block or so of any these folks' places of business or residences. There's really no excuse.
If the administration won't budge on forgiveness, the city council, who'll be asked to approve the fee schedule for residential permits, should set it at the largest individual outstanding amount owed plus the $100 being sought.
With the city trying for perhaps the first time in its history to establish enforcement credibility, this a political disaster waiting to happen.
If it weren't for Marcey, we wouldn't be collecting on tickets at all. At her urging, the city FINALLY spent the tax money necessary to make collection possible.
Forgiveness as so far proposed undermines that progress, wastes tax dollars, and creates easily documented, indefensible instances of selective enforcement to the tune of hundreds of thousands lost.
Do we really want to fight legal battles over parking tickets? For goodness sake, you got caught. Pay the fines.
If somebody wants to explain why they personally shouldn't have to pay the same penalties for breaking the law that anyone else does, let them do it in a public meeting with their names and faces in full view.
OK, I capitulate, even though mine was a just a suggested compromise. If one is politically necessary.
ReplyDeleteIs the parking pass just for downtown residents? That's my interpretation. If so, then none of the people who work downtown, but don't live there, should be eligible to buy one or to get (the proposed) ticket amnesty.
ReplyDeleteNo one who works downtown(unless they live there) can get a pass.
ReplyDeleteThe strongest argument I can muster in favor of waiving tickets is that the outstanding fees for residents reflects an unintended consequence of a parking scheme not designed for downtown residents. The waiver is an expression of the City’s new policy of acknowledging and encouraging downtown living.
ReplyDeleteThat argument sucks. I agree with Bluegill.
That's the general argument as I've heard it, BW. The two-hour limit was implemented to discourage business owners from parking in front of their own shops. Residents were an afterthought caught in the middle.
ReplyDeleteI'm not terribly keen on the downtown residential permit in general but that's an entirely different argument.
(standing on my soapbox at the corner of Pearl and Market)
ReplyDeleteThis is an issue that unless you're downtown you can't begin to understand this issue. This is about as heated as the smoking ban when it comes to downtown businesses.
Bluegill paints a black and white argument (that's usually my job) of getting caught. But what if your parking ticket was unlawful? What about receiving a $100 late fee for a $10 ticket, when there's nothing on your ticket that says "pay by:"?
The downtown businesses are tired of our customers being harassed and chased away by the parking nazi's. I have a letter written from a customer who lives in louisville who informed me he will not return after receiving a "late notice" for parking ticket he never received. His penalty for a non-received $10 ticket? $90. Total cost: $100.
I have tickets that are unjust and unfair. I made a very large (almost 2 feet tall) ticket and placed on my windshield as an example of how ridiculous the whole ticket process is, and the "officer" walked over and wrote me a parking ticket. I said I had just parked, and his response was "it's been there over two hours as far as I can tell".
There are people who are "grandfathered" and do not have to pay tickets. Most business owners sat in a meeting and were told by the head of the traffic division that there "was no enforcement".
How about something fair and "progressive" like parking meters?
What do you say to the business owner that spends millions investing in downtown that he not only can't park in front of his own building, but he also can't have the ability to park there for longer than two hours?
I think anyone who has a parking ticket should have it excused. I've received notice of parking tickets that were from 7 years ago. The only problem with that is I was not downtown 7 years ago.
This, like so many other things in our lack of local government, is a joke.