Parking ordinances grow teeth

COEUR d'ALENE — A proposed ordinance would bring bite back to parking rules in downtown Coeur d'Alene.

The drafted ordinance, which was discussed by the Coeur d'Alene Parking Commission at previous meetings, will again be reviewed at the April 5 meeting. The proposed ordinance would amend the municipal code of Coeur d'Alene to make way for a structured and enforceable parking ticket fee collection system, one that includes notifications, a scofflaw list and devices — "boots" — that will immobilize vehicles until fees are paid.

Collection actions could include a debt collection service, civil lawsuits or misdemeanor complaints. Towing and impoundment are also consequences repeat parking offenders could face.

"We don't want to tow," Terry Cooper, manager of the Coeur d'Alene Downtown Association, said Wednesday. "When you see a boot on a vehicle, I think it will create a lot of people talking and saying, 'Are they seriously enforcing now?' Parking has not really been enforced before."

The Press published an article in December informing readers that parking violators in Coeur d'Alene have not had to pay parking tickets for almost two years. The city has been operating without a parking administration contract and parking fine collection has not been enforced.

"This has been going on for a long time," Coeur d'Alene Mayor Steve Widmyer said in the Dec. 16 article, referring to the city’s overall inability to collect parking fines. "Our parking ordinance has no teeth."

The city council met in December and approved four contracts city staff negotiated with Diamond Parking, the city's parking collection service.

"The city has completed the new contracts with Diamond Parking," confirmed City Finance Director Troy Tymesen, adding "the collections process has not significantly changed since Dec. 16 of 2015."

The proposed ordinance, once it is implemented, would change the collection process. Rather than first-time offenders receiving tickets, Cooper said they would receive notices on their vehicles to educate them about public parking and prices while warning them that next time, they will receive a ticket.

"We want them to be aware that we appreciate them downtown," he said.

The drafted ordinance aims to hold people accountable for their unpaid parking tickets. When a person accumulates four or more parking tickets in one calendar year, he or she will be given 45 days to pay those fees. Beyond that, offenders will receive certified letters informing them they will be placed on the scofflaw list, which keeps track of those who have failed or refused to pay their parking fines. The list would be published on the city's website. If the fees still aren't paid in a certain time, a notice will be placed on the driver's side window about how to be removed from the scofflaw list.

If fees aren't paid within two business days of the posted notices, a parking administrator or code enforcement officer will immobilize the vehicle. Offenders will have 14 days to clear their names from the list or their vehicles will be towed and stored. They would then have to pay all the fees, including for towing and storage.

"There are individuals who get 20, 30, 40 tickets and they let them build up, they don’t ever pay them," Cooper said. "It amounts to several thousands of dollars a year to the city of Coeur d’Alene. It means, in the Downtown Association’s mind, even though they are downtown business members, they’re hurting other downtown business folks who could take advantage of having customers park close to where they would love to shop."

He said rather than parking in the 2-hour free on-street spots in the downtown core, including Sherman, Lakeside and Coeur d'Alene avenues between First and Seventh streets, those who work downtown could choose to park just a few blocks north in parking that isn't timed.

Cooper said downtown employees could also spring for monthly parking passes, which allow them to park in specific lots while leaving 2-hour spaces open for customers.

"There needs to be some way that the downtown and the city work together to get our employees and owners to buy monthly permits and park in designated parking areas off the main streets," he said. "The employees who park on the street, we would like to work toward getting them into monthly parking lots so customers can drive down the street and say, ‘Ah, there’s a parking spot,’ and enjoy themselves for two hours. Small towns suffer from the comments that ‘I don’t go downtown — there’s no place to park.’ That is far from the truth."

The proposed ordinance would also be somewhat of a fresh start for those with parking fine histories. Unless a person has received a ticket this year, their old unpaid tickets should be cleared. And people who receive parking violations will still have opportunities to file appeals.

"We’re not going back,” Cooper said. “We’re not going to go back and catch your unpaid tickets. It would be from the first of the year within that it’s approved. We would hope that it’s approved in May by council and then it would be effective starting 2016."