The city of Vancouver is cracking down on people who flout paying their parking tickets, but there’s still a big backlog.
Parking Manager Steve Kaspan said the city got its biggest scofflaw to pay early this year. Now it’s trying to build on that momentum.
“In January, in coordination with our collections agency, we collected from our top offender,” the owner of a 2004 Chevy Avalanche who owed around $23,000, Kaspan said in an email. “We are now working with them on the rest of the list.”
Kaspan said catching the Oregon-registered Avalanche’s driver was a team effort. The finance department worked with a collections agency to amass copies of parking tickets and the all the additional information needed for a judgment against the registered owner. Then parking enforcement helped the agency find the Avalanche so its owner could be served with legal papers.
Now the city is trying to collect from other repeat offenders. Collectively, drivers owe the city just over $237,000 in outstanding parking tickets. The top three offenders collectively owe the city almost $32,000. The chief offender, the owner of a Toyota 4Runner, owes $12,749. The city doesn’t release the names of the registered owners.
There are a few ways the city can try to collect the unpaid fines. For years, the city has prohibited drivers from buying or renewing parking permits until their tickets are paid.
Now Kaspan is working more with the city’s finance and legal departments, a collections agency and enforcement officers to actively seek out and collect from the remaining scofflaws.
The city is also putting more emphasis on reporting offending vehicles to the state Department of Licensing.
“If they have outstanding tickets, they can’t get those (license) tabs renewed until they pay off the balance,” Kaspan said, adding that he’s seen that situation play out. He recently had a woman contact him. She had $600 in outstanding parking tickets and couldn’t renew her auto license.
Spokeswoman Christine Anthony said the licensing department can also suspend driver’s licenses for unpaid parking tickets if ordered to do so by a court.
The city has progressively written more parking tickets since 2014.
In 2016, parking enforcement officers issued 25,082 parking citations, 74 percent of which were paid, Kaspan said. The two most offending vehicles were a Honda sedan and a Pontiac Grand Prix, which were issued 129 and 128 tickets, respectively.
Last year’s total is still below the five-year high of 27,581 tickets that were issued in 2012.
Fines range from $15 for incorrectly displaying a payment up to $450 for parking in a space reserved for the disabled. Kaspan said those high-dollar tickets are rare. The most common tickets range between $18 and $30, but the fine doubles if it’s not paid within 15 days.
New meters coming
Parking on Vancouver’s downtown streets will soon be a little different. This week the city is removing its old coin meters from individual parking spots and installing 40 new pay stations from Washington street to Broadway and from Fifth to 12th streets. Typically one machine covers a whole block.
“The biggest advantage is people can use credit cards,” Kaspan said. “A lot of people aren’t carrying change these days.”
Another advantage: drivers who have other stops to make can park with the same receipt until its printed time expires.
However, unlike the old meters, the machines do not allow 20 minutes of free parking.
