Government

Data: Parking Tickets Issued and Associated Revenue Down Since 2017

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New Canaan issued about 20% fewer parking tickets for the first eight months of 2018 compared to 2017, and the figure has declined again by an another approximately 5% this year, officials say. Total revenue from parking tickets also has declined in the year-to-date period since 2017, from about $263,000 to $231,000, according to new data released during Thursday’s meeting of the Parking Commission. 

So far this year, the Parking Bureau itself has either dismissed or reduced the fines associated with tickets by some $52,000, according to the department’s manager, Stacy Miltenberg. “We are being lenient and merciful,” Miltenberg said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. “We are going out there and we are trying to educate people, and maybe people don’t understand but we are trying to be a kinder and gentler department. I know some people don’t think we are.

Government

First Selectman: Locust Avenue Lot Repaving Project Likely Put Off to Next Summer

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The widely anticipated repaving of the Locust Avenue Lot likely will take place next summer instead of this year, as originally planned, officials say. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said during an update to the Parking Commission at the appointed body’s most recent meeting that he had “thought it was going to get done in August, but I don’t think it’s going to get done in August” now. Saying he was concerned about “people’s need for parking,” Moynihan told the Commission during its July 11 meeting that the work will involve “re-architecting” the lot. 

“They are going to redo the lot,” Moynihan said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. The town’s budget for the current fiscal year includes a $500,000 item for “parking lot construction” that had been thought to go toward the heavily used and deteriorating permit-and-meter parking lot next to the Post Office. Earlier this year, public works officials said that the repaving project could end up more expensive than originally planned if, when the town starts to dig up the area, it runs into the demolished, buried remains buildings that used to stand there. 

Thought nearly three years ago to be right for an estimated $4 million decking job, the lot is to be removed and replaced during a single estimated two-month period, public works officials have said.

Government

Town Officials Void $30 Ticket for Woman Who Parked in Main Street Loading Zone

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Town officials last month voided a $30 ticket that had been issued to an out-of-town woman delivering large books to a Main Street business. 

Terese Becker of Milford told members of the Parking Commission during her July 11 appeal hearing that she made just two trips to carry a total of about 12 large fabric and wallpaper books up to a business at 80 Main St. Becker said during her appeal hearing at Town Hall that she purposely parked in a loading zone on the morning of May 30 (a Thursday) near the corner of East Avenue because “actually I thought I was loading.”

The books themselves are long and heavy, she said. “So I literally took two trips from the car to the store, ran them up, two trips back down,” she told the Commission. “And I got a ticket. If I am not allowed to do that, that’s fine, I am happy to abide by the rules.

Government

‘I Think It’s Time’: Parking Bureau Pursues Body Cameras for Enforcement Officers

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With support from the appointed body that helps oversee her, the head of the New Canaan Parking Bureau last week said she intends to put together a formal, comprehensive proposal for getting body cameras for enforcement officers. 

On a night that saw a Westchester woman hurl expletives and serious accusations during an appeal hearing for a $30 ticket, Parking Manger Stacy Miltenberg said “it is time that the [parking enforcement] officers get body cameras like the police do.”

“I think that there’s two sides to every story and think it will be beneficial,” Miltenberg said during the Parking Commission’s regular meeting, held July 11 at Town Hall. She added: “I really do think that it is a good idea.”

In addition to laying out cost options for different types of models, Miltenberg said her proposal will include recommendations based on the officers’ uniforms, specifics on when they would be used and turned on, and a governing policy that could use the New Canaan Police Department’s as a baseline model. 

“I think it’s time,” Miltenberg said. Parking Enforcement Officer Lisa Pia, a guest at the meeting, agreed with that assessment, saying she’s wanted the cameras “for years.”

“Because people make accusations that are not accurate, not even close to being accurate,” Pia said. “And who has our back unless we have proof? I had a situation today when some lady said I was yelling at her and I said, ‘Ma’am, I think you are not liking the answer I am giving you and you are not happy with it.

Farva Jafri

Ticketed Woman Accuses Parking Enforcement and Town of Racism, Threatens Lawsuit

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An Armonk, N.Y. woman on Thursday night leveled accusations of race discrimination against the town of New Canaan and parking enforcement while appealing a $30 ticket she’d received downtown earlier this year. Farva Jafri told members of the Parking Commission during an appeal hearing that she watched an enforcement officer usher along white motorists with running cars stopped in hash-marked “no parking” zones on the east side of Main Street on a March afternoon while she herself received a ticket for having her car in the same type of area. “This is ridiculous,” Jafri said at the hearing, held in Town Hall. “This is a completely white town.”

She added, “This is racist.” The parking enforcement officer who issued the ticket, and the commissioners, flatly rejected claims of racism—and ultimately the appointed body voted 3-0 to uphold the ticket—though not before Jafri in expletive-laden accusations and legal threats shouted at town officials and some of the other 12 people in attendance.