Saying the town has seen a steep increase in the number of motorists fighting parking tickets on frivolous grounds, officials on Thursday decided that they’ll only consider appeals when violators show up in person to fight their tickets.
A poor parking job on Elm Street at 9:10 a.m. on Feb. 25. Credit: Terry Dinan
Most appeals take a general form of “I know I’m guilty, but …” and one major reason the New Canaan Parking Bureau is seeing so many more of them is that the letters are quick and easy to write, according to Keith Richey, chairman of the Parking Commission.
The town can “dissuade people from making—how shall I put it?—not well-founded appeals, frivolous appeals, by following the state statute,” Richey said during the group’s regular meeting, held in the Art Room at Lapham Community Center.
“The state statute has language in it that basically tells you that you need to show up,” Richey said.
The commission voted 4-0 in favor of more literally interpreting the state statute under which it operates (it’s here, see especially Section E) and updating its messaging to those seeking a reversal or reduction in the amount of their parking tickets.
Specifically, the commission voted to strike from its Hearing Notification template the following sentence:
If you choose to attend, you may bring any pertinent information of proof to your hearing.
And to add this (nearly word-for-word from Connecticut General Statute 7-152b):
If you wish to contest your parking ticket, you must appear at the hearing and may present evidence in your behalf. If you fail to appear, the Parking Commission may enter an assessment by default against you upon a finding of proper notice and liability under the applicable statutes or ordinances. The Parking Commission may accept from you copies of Parking Department or Police reports, Department of Motor Vehicles documents and other official documents by mail and may determine thereby that your appearance is unnecessary. The Parking Commission shall conduct the hearing in the order and form and with such methods of proof as it deems fair and appropriate. The rules regarding the admissibility of evidence shall not be strictly applied, but all testimony shall be given under oath or affirmation. The Parking Commission shall announce its decision at the end of the hearing. If it determines that you are not liable, the violation will be dismissed and this determination will be put in the official minutes.
Commission Secretary Rick Franco said that in the past, the way parking appeals worked in New Canaan was that if a person showed up, there was a good chance they’d have their ticket voided, whereas if they only submitted a written appeal, they’d probably have to pay it.
“We could just go back to being a little more interpretive of that [state statute],” Franco said.
The meeting itself opened with about 10 people fighting their parking tickets, including a local woman who had parked in the crosswalk near Dunkin Donuts on Elm Street, saying she’d only done so because she had spotted someone backing out of the “spot.”
The commission ultimately voted to uphold that ticket, and Franco said the woman’s case was a good example of people knowingly parking in violation of the rules, even dangerously so.
“You cannot create an endangering situation,” Franco said. “That lady who had stayed 15 minutes too long at Morse Court—she wasn’t going to kill anybody. But somebody struck by a car because their entrance into the crossing pattern does not allow a driver an initial view of the pedestrian, he won’t see the person until he’s eight, nine feet out into the thing—we can’t have that.”
Parking Bureau Superintendent Karen Miller said anecdotally that she’s seen “an increase in the amount of people coming in [to the bureau’s offices on Elm] who just do not want to take accountability.”
To drive home the rule change to ticketed motorists, the commission also decided that for those filling out a form for appeals, they’d add language saying “You must appear at the hearing in order for your appeal to be heard” or something similar.