U.S. House Report Slams Parking Ticket Hypocrisy

by The Newspaper

October 30th, 2008 9:15 PM

u s house report slams parking ticket hypocrisy

A report released last week by the U.S. House Committee on Transportation documents 4k cases where employees in federal vehicles in Washington, D.C. and New York City skipped-out on parking tickets last year, turning their backs on $700k in unpaid fines. “Over one-half of all workers in the southernmost section of Manhattan are government employees,” the report explained. “Essentially, all of lower Manhattan is a free parking lot for government vehicles.” FBI officials told the committee that a thorough investigation failed to yield any suspects for 218 parking infractions. In 2007, D.C. meter maids wrote the Army, Navy and Air Force 158 parking tickets worth $27,840. (None of the recruiters challenged the DC citations due to their “demanding work schedule.”) The report noted that most meter maids ignore federal vehicles because they know there’s no point issuing a citation. “Federal law requires employees to pay parking tickets received on U.S. government vehicles, but… The DC Department of Public Works does not boot or tow government-tagged vehicles, ‘as a matter of long-standing policy.'”

Federal workers were not alone in ignoring parking laws. City workers in Washington and New York also disregarded citations issued by fellow employees. DC government vehicles generated 329 unpaid tickets worth $33,360 while New York city and state vehicles skipped out on paying 2562 tickets worth $490,939.

“As public servants, federal employees should have a heightened sense of responsibility for preserving, protecting, and promoting public safety. Federal employees who use government property, including government vehicles, to break the law are not only abusing their positions but are abusing the public trust,” the committee report concluded.And that’s that.

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2 of 5 comments

R H on Oct 31, 2008

Jerome10> Another fellow Chicagoan, hello! The Chicago solution depends on who you know and how well you know them. I wouldn't be surprised if one day the tires of that vehicle have an "accident"

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Bertel Schmitt on Oct 31, 2008

This piece of anecdotal evidence points to real, real, real bad times. I mean real. Really. If Lower Manhattan is a parking lot for the Feds, the Upper East Side is a parking lot for the diplomatic corps of the rest of the world. Last time it was tried to collect from THOSE scofflaws, if my fading memory serves me right, Manhattan was justabout C7. Now someone has the nerve to take on NYC, DC, and the Feds? With an FBI probe, and a House Committee???? Signs of abject desperation. So much adoo-doo about not even half a million of unpaid summonses? Abandon ship!

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