Mayor Sheila Dixon has pledged to “get to the bottom” of the bogus parking ticket scandal, and Inspector General Hilton Green has started an investigation, but for drivers victimized by the scam, questions remain.
“I don?t really understand why anyone would do this. What?s the incentive, unless there are quotas?” said Bud Becker, of Catonsville, whose car was ticketed twice for different locations minutes apart.
The answer, according to an insider at the city?s Department of Transportation, is the scarcity of a previously reliable cash cow: an expired meter.
New kiosks that allow motorists to use credit cards or coins to pay for parking have turned target-rich environments for errant motorists like Fells Point and the Inner Harbor into veritable violator dead zones, leaving agents desperate to make up for lost revenue.
“It?s harder to find violators. That?s part of the problem; they?ve had to spread out to other neighborhoods,” said an employee of the DOT who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. “It?s not as easy to write a ticket.”
“Folks have found the machines to be quite convenient, and they have been very successful,” said Adrienne Barnes, spokeswoman for the DOT.
Statistics released by the DOT seem to back up the employee?s claim.
The city issued more than 100,000 parking tickets in the first half of 2007; 350,000 were given out during all of 2006. Budget officials said the sharp decline puts receipts from citations well below the $12 million projected for the current fiscal year.
DOT officials, meanwhile, said the parking kiosks have proven to be a mixed blessing, increasing compliance from motorists and increasing the number of parking spaces ? but making it harder for agents to find cars at expired meters.
“They still have quotas, but they?re not called quotas, they?re called ?expectations,? ” the DOT employee recounted.
Each agent is expected to write 40 tickets per eight-hour shift, the employee said. But recent statistics show that few, if any, agents are hitting the mark.
Citywide, only one of the city?s five ticket squads is issuing an average of more than 40 tickets per eight-hour shift.
Lagging revenues lead to threats of layoffs, sources say, a move that might explain why an agent would write a fake ticket.
On the record, DOT officials admit ticket writing is down significantly, but dispute claims of imminent layoffs.
“To my recollection, no one from Transportation has been laid off or told that they would be laid off,” said DOT’s Barnes.
But other city officials said the system of using expired meters to fund city programs needs to be overhauled.
“I’ve said this before: We’re too reliant on parking fines,” said Councilman Kenneth Harris, D-4th District. “It’s not predictable, and it’s not healthy for the city.”
