Relief may be on way for parking scofflaws

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - The days of interminably compounding late fees on unpaid city parking tickets may be over.

City Council will vote on a bill at today’s meeting that would allow people with unpaid tickets to stop fines from accumulating — even if they can’t pay the entire amount at once.

Currently a late fee of $16 per month accumulates after a grace period until the ticket is paid, leaving some scofflaws with hefty bills and cars towed to the city’s impound lot. But a compromise worked out in committee on a bill introduced by City Councilman Jack Young, D-12th District, would halt fines if the violator agrees to a payment plan.

“The fines are capped off at six months, and then it will be sent to a collection agency so the person can work out a payment schedule,” Young said. “If they don’t make good on the payment plan, then the fines resume.”

Young’s bill had originally called for capping the late penalties to three times the face value of the ticket, a cap that was initially opposed by the both the city finance department and the police department. The finance department argued that parking scofflaws were primarily not city residents, and that limiting the fines would be a disincentive for violators to pay. But a compromise worked out in City Councilman Robert Curran’s Judiciary and Legislative Investigations committee gives people recourse provided they’re proactive.

“If you take the initiative and call the finance department and set up the payment plan, the penalty phase stops,” said Curran, D-3rd District. “But it’s up to the individual person.”

Curran said collections and negotiations would be handled either by the finance department or contracted to a private collections agency.

Curran said a compromise was necessary to get backing from the finance department, though he still thinks the monthly late penalty is too high. “I would have liked to have reduced the penalty rate from $16 a month to $12. I think $16 is usury,” he said.

Young said he is happy that the bill is finally moving forward, so he can set his sights on investigating the city’s impound lot.

“I’m going to push that next.”

sjanis@baltimoreexaminer.com

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