Thursday, Jul. 03, 2008

Violators will be stuck

City to lock cars with unpaid parking tickets

Parking tickets. It’s common to see them tucked beneath the windshield wipers of cars in downtown Olathe.

What’s becoming uncommon are payments of those tickets. Now the city is taking steps to alleviate the problem.

A March audit of the municipal court’s cash handling and collection procedures indicated that between January 2004 and July 2007, 1,997 parking tickets had not been paid. That amounts to about $30,000 in unpaid parking infractions and associated fees, Police Chief Janet Thiessen said.

The City Council approved an ordinance Tuesday to immobilize vehicles in violation by purchasing parking boots, or wheel locks, which will be affixed to the wheels of cars whose owners have more than $100 in outstanding parking violations. Paying the fines and a $50 fee would be required within 72 hours to remove the lock or the car would be towed.

Thiessen said she hoped the program, which is common among other law enforcement agencies across the country, would deter illegal parking downtown.

“Obviously, our desire is that people will voluntarily pay outstanding fines,” she said. “There is plenty of parking downtown. We’d prefer not to boot vehicles.”

Thiessen said the number parking tickets had not decreased since the parking garage was expanded. Recent increases in the costs of the fines haven’t resulted in fewer violators either, so the city took action, she said.

City spokesman Tim Danneberg said recently passed state legislation allowed the city to pass along the costs of recovering fees to violators.

Barbara Pickwoad, the department’s traffic control officer who writes about 400 tickets each month, said she’s familiar with the drivers who frequently park illegally. They’re mostly employees of Johnson County and attorneys who spend much of their time at the courthouse, she said.

“Some people feel like they’re entitled to front-row parking,” Pickwoad said.

According to the audit, the city’s two most frequent violators had nearly 140 outstanding tickets and more than $2,000 in unpaid fines. Eight others owed more than $400 each.

Danneberg said the city would provide a list of offenders who have a significant number of tickets and the amount they owe, per a Kansas Open Records request from The Olathe News.

The audit also revealed that between $587,000 and $637,000 in outstanding fines and fees were owed to Olathe from violators who appeared in court but hadn’t yet paid. City Auditor John Curran said those were mostly speeding tickets. He said a collection agency was hired to help.

Thiessen said Olathe would purchase three or four wheel locks at a cost of $400 to $600 each. She said a media campaign would precede implementation of the program to alert the public and give frequent violators a chance to pay their fines before finding a wheel lock on their car.

“We’re hoping to help change people’s habits,” she said. “It would be great if people complied with the law.”

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