Parking ticket late fee increases

The fine on late parking tickets went from $10 to $15.

By James Patrick Schmidt

Published Oct. 3, 2006

The Columbia City Council voted 5-1 on Monday to crack down on delinquent parking tickets.

The council passed an ordinance making it easier for the city to tow a vehicle if the owner has five unpaid parking tickets.

It also raises the fine on late tickets from $10 to $15.

The ordinance was passed with the intention of offering incentives for citizens to pay parking tickets on time.

"With a person who gathers a bunch of parking tickets, on the fourth ticket, the meter person comes by and finds the car, it will show up that this is the fourth ticket," Mayor Darwin Hindman said during the council's discussion. "At that point, there will be a notice placed on a car that the car can be towed if the car gets another ticket."

The new ordinance also has sections allowing for a citizen to submit a written protest regarding a ticket.

If there is a protest placed on a ticket, then that ticket will not count toward the five tickets that can cause a vehicle to be towed, unless that ticket is decided to be valid by an official hearing.

The $5 increase for paying late tickets is meant as a more direct incentive for citizens to pay their tickets on time.

A ticket is considered delinquent when it is not turned in within 15 days of being issued.

Fifth Ward Councilwoman Laura Nauser, who voted against the measure, raised objections to increasing the cost of delinquent tickets during the discussion.

She said that since parking is increasingly difficult to find downtown, it is unfair to raise the fines on tickets considering employees in the downtown area.