Holy Taxation City Set To Enact Towing Bylaw To Collect $1 Million In Unpaid Parking Tickets
Initiative projected to net additional $134,000 to City coffers
Fears of violent vehicle owners Not happy about vehicle impoundment seemingly brushed over
By Robert Thomas
The mountain of close to $1 million in unpaid parking fines is one of those ‘jimminey jeepers Batman’ moments and something the meter paying caped crusader is unlikely to help the City collect.
With that said Council has decided to take the issue head on as a means of raising much needed funds.
“The City of Moose Jaw has approximately $1 million in uncollected parking fines and believes it is important to collect fine revenue as a deterrent to illiegal parking as well as to fund this function,” a recent report to Council read.
The City is owed $1,080,000 in outstanding parking fines from approximately 4,000 individuals.
It’s an issue Council has discussed over months and been taxing on their resources.
“We've spent quite a bit of time on this already. I’m convinced it’s worth proceeding with,” Mayor Clive Tolley told Council at a special December 7th meeting.
It is a move Council's representative on the Downtown Moose Jaw Association (DMJA) Councillor Heather Eby supports.
“Again it comes down to communication. And if this is going to be implemented I really feel City Hall needs to be communicating this to the public now. And as we go forward perhaps people will be pro-active and get some of these parking tickets paid before we start towing,” Councillor Eby said.
She said the community wants action in collection of unpaid parking fines.
“However I do believe the Community has been asking for a strategy to get some of this or as much if this collected so I’m in favour,” Councillor Eby said.
In the past Councillor Eby has stated a friend of hers - who owns a Downtown business - told the Councillor the $20 voluntary fine for overparking (increased to $10 in 2019) came right out of the bottom line of her friend's business.
The increase to $20 from $10 was implemented as an added deterrent to illegal parking.
It needs to be noted the DMJA - a group representing some of the businesses Downtown - has requested some of the parking meter revenues for their initiatives.
As well as Administration has earmarked the fines to help fund the reorganization at City Hall.
“The next steps are really to get things in place. So some communication with the Police and the City's bylaw officers. One that is not in that list…is hiring a bylaw officer and getting that person in place. And then speaking with towing companies to see what the interest would be and who we could line up,” City Solicitor Andrew Svenson told Council during Budget 2023 deliberations.
The initiative will cost an additional $106,000 - $66,000 to hire a new bylaw officer, additionally $50,000 more spent on parking enforcement.
The initiatives would result in $250,000 in additional gross revenue for the City with a net revenue of $134,000 once the additional hiring and expenses $106,000 are deducted.
“We would need a bylaw and the fees that would be charged. We would need copies of all of the convictions from the Moose Jaw Police Service (MJPS),” Svenson said.
“That would lead into communication…making sure we are not just showing up and starting towing. Everybody would be aware that this is coming. So somewhat of a public relations campaign that will be worked out,” he said, adding it would take three months to complete these tasks.
The Bylaw to allow the City to tow vehicles will come before Council in the first quarter of 2023.
Svenson did not address any potential fallout to Downtown businesses if motorists chose not to park Downtown due to the fine crackdown.
He also did not address any of the irregularities in the past assessment of parking fines.
Irregularities which include historically there being no written policies and regulations by the Moose Jaw Police Service (MJPS) in some areas of issuing parking fines.
In one instance even a private property owner was given a signed ticket book and then he issued fines for parking on private property without needing to contact police.
It is unknown if any of these tickets are amongst the outstanding fines.
The Saskatoon Experience
Administration is basing its policy for collecting unpaid parking fines on the City of Saskatoon's experience.
Saskatoon, which presently has a towing policy, has an 85 percent compliance rate while Moose Jaw has an 80 percent fine paying compliance rate.
In Saskatoon the service of identifying vehicles and towing is contracted out.
There are both benefits and negatives to Saskatoon's system which can daily handle the towing of seven offenders vehicles on average.
Some of the drawbacks pointed out in the Saskatoon experience is the time it takes to locate vehicles.
As well as there have been violent confrontations when people don't appreciate their vehicle being towed.
It is one concern that was in the report to Council.
To assist the Bylaw officers who will be tasked with locating and towing a vehicle the MJPS would be notified.
It is unknown if the MJPS could provide a warning to the people towing a vehicle if the registered owner has a violent record due to federal laws about the use of the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) resources as well as provincial privacy laws.
So Why The Need For Parking Meters??
Although they are a source of income for the City the reason for parking meters in the Downtown is a means to free up parking spaces.
The argument is if the meters were not there the parking spaces would not be available as staff from the Downtown stores would simply occupy the spots.
The argument is not without merit as in the past the all important Christmas shopping parking meter holiday - where parking is free Downtown - did in fact see the spots occupied in many cases by all day parkers.
Others on the other hand see the meters as deterrent to people going Downtown to shop.
They point to other communities such as Swift Current, Lloydminster and Medicine Hat who have no meters but also enforce time limits as the way to go.
The argument may hold some merit as MJ Independendent conducted an informal count (noon and 3 pm) in the two weeks leading up to Christmas and found in over 60 percent of our counts there were 75 or more empty metered spots.
Although part of the time through the count was during frigid temperatures.
EDITOR'S NOTE - MJ Independent is presently working on other stories about this issue. Look for them in the coming year.