Defeat of the No-Decal Parking Ticket
Two things that you WILL take away with you after graduation from a university: a diploma and a parking ticket. I can confidently say that parking enforcement is out of control at campuses nationwide. Most everyone who gets a ticket for illegal parking feels aggrieved in some way: they were only stopping to drop something off at an area with no parking, it’s summer and there are millions of available spots, they build lecture halls and student centers without building parking, etc. Piling on, parking is usually exorbitantly expensive and mandatory for practical reasons - not to mention the latest “progressive” (aka socialist) schemes sprouting up, whereby faculty earning more also pay more to park. Absolute power has corrupted absolutely.
Yet, after my latest ticket I beat the system - the very thought of which invokes the envy, ire, awe, and/or fascination of my peers.
I will begin with an email that I sent to the head of Parking Services, as it describes everything in full.
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Mr. Horatio: My name is [HitHimAgain], and I am a third-year law student here at the College. I have recently been affected by a hold on my account which is preventing me from reviewing my records and may impact my ability to graduate. As such, I am seeking to resolve this matter as quickly as possible. I have called Parking Services and talked with Order of Events:
Sometime between my appeal and the present: Unbeknownst to me, my appeal was denied and notice was sent to the wrong address (a matter that I have talked through with Parking Regulations 05-06, Paragraph 2 reads in full: Students who are eligible to purchase a decal have from August 24, 2006 until August 31, 2006 to purchase a decal without receiving a citation for no decal. All other rules will be enforced during this grace period. In the interim students must park according to their classification and never in faculty/staff spaces. Faculty and staff must park according to their classification, as well. Tickets are tracked by license plate and each license plate will be issued one (1) no decal warning. Each no decal violation after the first warning will carry a $120 fine. Contention I: As a student without knowledge of internal parking practices, the Paragraph 2 suggests that warnings are issued once at the end of each grace period. First, the purpose for the warning is to remind students that they are in need of a decal – and rightfully so, as the penalty is quite hefty (50% of the cost of a decal itself). This purpose does not cease to exist after a student receives a warning in years prior. Second, if a student receives a warning in a previous year, there would be no way to foresee that they would be ticketed in a subsequent year – given that warnings would have been issued 100% of the time at the end of a grace period in their personal experience. Third, Paragraph 2 suggests given its context that you get one (1) no decal warning at the end of a grace period. The entire paragraph discusses the effect of grace periods and the repercussions of the grace period ending. Given that grace periods occur annually, and the Parking Regulations are also propagated annually, this is the only reasonable interpretation for a student without internal knowledge of Parking Services procedures. Fourth, Parking Services policy of issuing only one warning throughout one’s lifetime is unusual. Given the purpose of a “warning” and the language of Paragraph 2, it would be an unusual result that an alumni might visit the College in the year 2020 (with the same license plates of course) and receive another of these $105 tickets without first being warned. Contention II: To justify a $105 fine, the Parking Regulations should be more explicit. If Parking Services intends on issuing $105 tickets for lack of a decal, the regulations should be more clear and simply state that you will be allowed “one warning during the entirety of your enrollment,” instead of suggesting – as it does now – that you are allowed one warning at the end of each grace period. Am I entitled to further appeal? First, the parking regulations indicate that a second appeal is possible in light of “additional relevant information.” I believe that my more thorough explanation outlines points that the appeals board was unable to consider during my initial appeal and the arguments outlined herein are indeed additional and relevant. Do you concur? Second, the Parking Regulations indicate that “[a] ticket may be contested in person . . . .” It is my understanding that I have not been afforded this opportunity for whatever reason, given address mix-ups and the like. In the alternative to a second appeal, I would request a rehearing with my attendance. Are there any other administrative options? If I am not qualified for a further appeal, I would like to know at what point I have exhausted my administrative options – i.e. at what point do I face the choice of paying the ticket in order to graduate or seeking legal remedy? I look forward to hearing back from you regarding these matters.
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Following this email, I was granted the opportunity to appear before the parking committee and argue these points in person (See email, Am I Entitled to Further Appeal?).
I came prepared, even bringing copies of the paragraph in question cut into neat segments for distribution to the committee members. At the hearing, I briefly argued the above points before the committee - which included Mr. Horatio, the head of parking, in an apparent conflict of interest. The parking president is going to decide whether he wants to give me my one-hundred dollars back.
Then the questions commenced. I was asked why I forgot to get a parking pass. I reiterated that I genuinely forgot and that I benefited in no way by feigning that point - without a pass I was eventually going to get a ticket (unlike if I were parking in an emergency spot for five minutes). In response, the lady gave me a short lecture on the behaviors of canines; to paraphrase:
Usually, when a dog does something wrong and you punish him for it, he remembers that and won’t do it again. It seems like you should have remembered.
Setting the insult aside, my response was essentially “Yeah, but I forgot.”
I also made the point to the committee that $105 fine is a lot and should be taken seriously, to which Mr. Horatio posited the question, paraphrasing:
What does the price of a ticket have to do with whether or not you’ll follow the rules?
My response:
Obviously the rules should be enforced properly in every case, but, being pragmatic, if the fine were only $15 I would not be before you today. I have already spent a large amount of my personal time worrying about, calling, corresponding with, and now appearing before the parking office.
Mr. Horatio also suggested that I was “loopholing” my way out of a ticket. I cut him off to explain that I was seeing to it that the parking regulations as they are clearly written are enforced properly in my case. A loophole is when someone reads regulations and finds a way to violate the spirit of the law through legalese. There is no loophole. The spirit of the regulation is that warnings shall be given, but I can understand how Mr. Horatio thought that the spirit of the regulation is to take money from students.
The hearing closed on this note:
Mr Horatio: We are going to have a committee meeting to discuss these regulations and implement changes - why does this need to be changed?
HitHimAgain: Well, from a realistic perspective, I don’t think students read these regulations, so it won’t have an impact whatsoever as to how parking regulations will be followed. However, the regulation needs to be changed to match your policy of issuing tickets instead of warnings - so that when a student comes along and refuses to pay, you can enforce it.
I then thanked the committee and left. About a week later, I received notice that my appeal was successful and the hold on my account had been lifted.
There is a larger issue which I dared not broach during this whole debacle: if I never had a parking pass, and I never signed a parking contract with attached policies, how can Parking Enforcement hold me accountable to that which I have not agreed? This single point could bring the whole system crashing down - they can’t touch you if you don’t buy a pass.
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