Lots of Grief: more complaints about
parking fines
The Portland City Council is expected to raise parking
lot "surcharge fees" this week--a move many motorists
might compare to giving pickpockets a pay bonus.
Portlanders love to whine about parking--the lack of
it, the cost of it, the hassle of it. But Mike Sanderson
of the city's license bureau says nothing generates
more official complaints than the so-called surcharges--a
euphemism for fines imposed by private parking-lot operators
for various offenses.
Sanderson says he receives about 50-60 complaints about
the surcharges each month. Most have to do with the
machines that collect parking fees at unattended lots.
Sue Ayer's experience is typical.
The retired Unitarian minister parked in an unattended
lot at Southwest 12th Avenue and Salmon Street one night
last November. She put $3 in the lot's machine but didn't
receive one of those little receipts that motorists
are supposed to display under their windshield on the
driver's side. She left a note on her windshield explaining
the problem, but when she returned she found a surcharge
notice--essentially a parking ticket--next to her note.
The lot is owned by City Center Parking, but the notice
came from Pay & Park Auditors, the company hired
to monitor the private lots.
Ayer wrote to Pay & Park to dispute the surcharge,
but the company wouldn't back down. Finally, she coughed
up $29.50 to settle the dispute. "I will never park
there again," she says. "I have turned around and gone
home rather than park in one of their lots."
Ayer and a lot of other miffed motorists think the
machines are a scam. The devices, owned by City Center,
are supposed to issue a receipt when a motorist inserts
payment either in coins or with a credit card. Pay &
Park employees then patrol the lots to ensure that cars
have receipts displayed in their windows. If a car is
parked without a receipt, or if a receipt is expired,
Pay & Park issues a notice for a $14.50 surcharge
in addition to the original parking fee. The surcharge
increases to $26.50 if unpaid after 30 days.
The process is similar to the one the city uses for
its parking meters, but there's one big difference.
"They're operating like the Parking Patrol, but there's
no judge on these things," says Sanderson of the license
bureau. "There is no hearing or due process."
In City Center lots, Pay & Park is the enforcer
and the judge. Even more troubling, the company
is a judge who gets paid only if he finds people guilty.
Pay & Park makes money from surcharges alone. (City
Center keeps all of the actual parking fees.)
Pay & Park officials admit the machines break down
occasionally. In fact, signs at the lots warn customers
that if a machine doesn't work, they should park elsewhere.
But by that time, as Ayer points out, motorists have
lost their money.
Jeff Cohen, owner of Pay & Park, says people may
be complaining, but not all of them have been wronged.
Cohen says his employees check the machines after issuing
surcharge notices to make sure they're working.
Sanderson, however, says the company's test is hardly
foolproof. If a machine accepts coins only, Pay &
Park tests the machine by inserting coins. If a machine
accepts coins and credit cards, the company tests with
a credit card.
"All that means is that when Pay & Park tried their
credit card, the machine was working," Sanderson says.
It doesn't prove that the coin-operated function of
the machine was working properly.
Sanderson says Pay & Park does sometimes waive
fees when challenged. Still, he adds, "it's in their
best interest to develop rules that generate profits.
We could never write enough rules to cover all the potential
abuses. I say 'potential'--I'm not saying they're abusing--but
you can read between the lines."
Cohen says neither his company nor City Center is "interested
in scamming the public."
Mark Goodman of City Center Parking points out that
parking lots are highly regulated.
"These processes were developed by our company and
the auditors and by the City of Portland," Goodman says.
"These safeguards were done by three different companies
trying to come up with something that was foolproof."
Goodman concedes that unattended lots have always led
to disputes over payment. But he says that the volume
of complaints is much lower than in the early 1990s,
when a company called Metro Parking Enforcement had
the contract with City Center. "They were bringing complaints
in on handtrucks," Sanderson confirms. Darlene Carlson,
an assistant to Commissioner Jim Francesconi, agrees
that complaints have declined and that the system has
improved, especially since the days when parking-lot
attendants called in the tow trucks.
Lots
of Grief
Not all complaints about parking fines in unattended
lots can be blamed on malfunctioning machines:
* Matthew W. DeBenedetti says he was fined after parking
in a City Center lot at Northwest 1st Avenue and Davis
Street in February to shop at Oregon Mountain Community.
A sign at the lot says OMC customers are entitled to
one hour of free parking. The sign doesn't explain that
they can park only in certain stalls.
* Thomas N. Spitzer parked at the lot at Northwest
23rd Avenue and Glisan Street last November, then ran
into a nearby restaurant for change to pay his fee.
When he returned just minutes later, he already had
a surcharge notice on his car.
* Gary Dusseau says he paid to park in the Glisan lot
but several days later received a surcharge notice in
the mail anyway. By this time, though, Dusseau says
he couldn't find his receipt to prove that he had paid.
--MO
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Willamette Week | originally
published May 26, 1999
