City to offer amnesty on parking tickets

SOUTH PORTLAND — At its next meeting, Dec. 17, the South Portland City Council will consider instituting an amnesty period on outstanding parking tickets.

The move follows final passage Dec. 3 of an ordinance update that allows the city clerk’s office to deny renewal of vehicle registration to residents with unpaid fines. According to City Attorney Sally Dagget, the denial power will apply to tickets incurred before the Dec. 23 effective date of the ordinance.

“This is in hopes of trying to increase our parking ticket collection here in the city,” said City Manager Jim Gailey.

Finance Director Greg L’Heureux said last week that the city is sitting on about $136,000 in unpaid parking tickets dating to 2009.

Gailey said the proposal he plans to bring the council will offer to waive late fees on parking tickets for a limited period of time, as yet to be determined.

Most parking tickets in South Portland range from $15 to $20, although fire lane violations cost $50 and parking in a handicapped spot will net a $100 fine. Those fees double if the ticket is not paid within 15 days of the alleged violation, unless the ticket holder has filed an appeal with the police department, or else has elected to fight the ticket in Cumberland County Unified Court.

If Police Chief Ed Googins, who has sole power to rule on appeals, decides not to tear up the ticket following a written request, the ordinance says he must “treat the denial as a request for a court appearance and assign a court date for the registered owner” of the ticketed vehicle. Any parking ticket that goes before a judge can turn into a fine of at least $50, but no more than $300.

Jerry Jalbert was the only council member to oppose the new ordinance, calling it “too much power of government.”

He faulted the new rules for being too vague on the criteria the police chief may use to deny an appeal, or the causes for which a person may file one. Daggett said the basis for an appeal is only the “limits of the imagination of the person who received the parking ticket.”

Jalbert said it seemed unfair that the council, which determines the time and place for on-street parking, should then tie penalties for violating those rules to the ability to register a vehicle.

“Government can be very powerful and I think this may be where we flex a little bit too much muscle,” he said, noting that new ordinance could hit the poor disproportionately hard.

“For some citizens, to register their car, a month prior they have to start making sacrificing,” he said. “To have any additional costs is something that I feel is a little too much legislative muscle.”

Other councilors held a different view.

“I feel that being able to register a vehicle is a privilege not a right,” said new Councilor Linda Cohen. “Parking in the proper place for the proper amount of time is part of that.”

For the first round of amnesty, Gailey said, notices will be sent to people with outstanding tickets advising of the short-term offer to waive any late fees. That notice is also something that may not happen again.

“That’s giong to be a one-shot deal,” said Gailey. “We’re not mailing in future.”