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Commission to look at parking ticket troubles: Audit found little enforcement of citations due to new software [The Daily News, Bowling Green, Ky.]
(Daily News (Bowling Green, KY) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jan. 18--Bowling Green officials are looking to rev up parking ticket violation enforcement after an audit released by Bowling Green Internal Auditor Debra Jenkins last year found enforcement had essentially come to a stop.
According to the report, the installation of new financial software made entering and tracking individual parking violations too cumbersome.
Jenkins' audit cited several vehicle plates with multiple unpaid tickets -- three plates had six outstanding tickets each, and other individual plates had 12, 14 and even 18 outstanding tickets each.
"With no monitoring or tracking system available, enforcement is not currently possible," Jenkins' audit said. "Due to the inability to track and enforce parking citations, the revenues for these citations has also decreased."
How to remedy this problem is the subject of the Bowling Green City Commission's Tuesday night work session.
The current way of collecting fines relies on the honor system, according to a recent memo by Bowling Green Police Chief Doug Hawkins.
Hawkins explains that originally, vehicle ownership information was not included on the ticket, making it difficult for the city's finance department to follow up on fine dodgers. Starting in 2007, parking tickets given to finance included information regarding vehicle ownership, but because of new accounting software, "creating a record of individual fine payments was labor and time intensive," Hawkins wrote.
Subsequently, the finance department decided to quit tracking individual payments.
Hawkins has suggested two ways to reverse the lack of parking ticket enforcement; buy hardware and software needed to do violation tracking in-house, or contract with a third party to manage, track and collect parking fines.
Under the first solution, Hawkins said there would be an initial capital investment of up to $35,000 for all the necessary equipment. Additionally, Bowling Green Police Department employees would be tasked with running the new system.
If BGPD contracted with an outside company, no initial investment would have to be made. Hawkins said the department has talked with one company that would perform the tasks at no expense to the city, instead relying on a profit-sharing business model.
"It's our understanding that this option will not eliminate the local discretionary decision making of anyone involved in the legal authority to exonerate parking tickets -- to include the Code Enforcement Board," Hawkins said.
Since parking tickets are code violations, and not criminal citations, violators have the ability to plead their cases before the Code Enforcement Board.
Because this is being discussed at a work session, there won't be any legally binding decision on the situation.
Prior to the work session, the commission will work through a light agenda during its regular 7 p.m. meeting.
All ordinances must legally be read and voted on twice, so several topics already taken up by the commission will be voted on again. This includes rezoning approximately six acres in Block 12 of the city's tax increment financing district from a hodgepodge of residential, public, and business to planned unit development.
Located between Kentucky and Center streets and 13th and 14th avenues, the land is currently owned by Western Kentucky University and Bowling Green Single-Purpose Entity. It is slated to have a hotel, parking garage, and alumni center built on it.
The commission voted in favor of the rezoning at the last meeting by a measure of 4-1. Mayor Elaine Walker was the dissenting vote.
To see more of the Bowling Green Daily News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.bgdailynews.com.
Copyright (c) 2010, The Daily News, Bowling Green, Ky.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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