parking

“Dear PoPville,

I wanted to share my frustrations regarding this city’s amateurish and broken parking ticket adjudication process, and also seek help from the community in resolving my problem. In particular, I want to highlight the lack of responsiveness by the “Ticket Adjudication Ombudsman,” the office ostensibly tasked with helping people who have already been ignored or frustrated by normal DMV channels.

To make a long story short, I successfully appealed a parking ticket I received in April 2015. I was ticketed and towed for parking in an “Emergency No Parking” zone, but had photographic evidence that the “No Parking” sign had not been put up 72 hours in advance, as required by law (in fact, the photographic evidence I was relying on was the very photo taken by the traffic enforcement officer, but that’s another story.)

I challenged the ticket twice to a hearing examiner, who summarily denied my motions without even acknowledging or addressing my defense. I then paid the ticket ($150) and filed a formal appeal, noting in my “brief” that the hearing examiner had ignored my defenses and photographic evidence. The appellate board sided with me and reversed the ticket; in the opinion, they specifically cited the fact that the hearing examiner had failed to even address my defenses and justify his/her decision, as required by law. The opinion said I should allow “8-10 weeks for a refund” of my ticket

Well, that was in early May, sixteen weeks ago. Two weeks ago, after still not receiving my refund, I wrote to the “Ticket Adjudication Ombudsman,” the outfit tasked with helping customers navigating the adjudication process and resolving customer complaints. Guess what? Even the Ombudsman hasn’t responded to me or even acknowledged my complaint.

How have others in my situation (there have to be others) dealt with this problem? Why is this city incapable of providing basic customer service to its residents?”

Side note: The following press release was issued by the DMV yesterday:

Due to a power outage in its vendor’s New York office, the District of Columbia Department of Motor Vehicles’ (DC DMV) ticket payment system is currently not in operation.

At this time, DC DMV is unable to process ticket payments, research tickets, or access tickets. The agency is unable at this time to adjudicate any tickets that have been submitted by mail or online. (more…)

From DDOT:

“The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) is seeking comments on a proposed rulemaking which would establish a process for neighborhoods to modify or expand residential permit parking restrictions. In an effort to address concerns from neighborhoods that are experiencing parking pressures from surrounding activity centers DDOT is proposing to establish clear criteria for the modification of RPP parking and for creating resident-only parking on established RPP blocks. In addition, the proposed rules would clarify and update a number of current parking and parking related regulations.

The proposed rules may be reviewed and comments submitted here.

Although the published rules indicate the time for submitting written comments will close in thirty days, DDOT has officially extended the comment period to a full 60 days (more…)

“Dear PoPville,

A ward 8 council member with the car in the photos was parked two blocks from Eastern Market on Capital Hill this past Monday night (approximately 7 pm). They were using their official parking permit to park and do not have a residential parking permit despite having DC tags. Is this allowed? Was he/she on official business? Is this an abuse of the permit?”

As we’ve discussed many times in the past, from the DC Code:

“Members of Congress or the Council may park their vehicles in any available curb space in the District of Columbia, when:

(1) The vehicle is used by the member of Congress or the Council on official business;

(2) The vehicle is displaying a Congressional or Council registration tag or parking placard issued for the current session or by the District; and

(3) The vehicle is not parked in violation of a loading zone, rush hour, firehouse, or fire plug limitation.”

It certainly seems possible that they could have been attending a meeting Monday night but it’s really impossible to know for sure.

Ed. Note: For the record I also continue to get Ward 2 Council Member “illegal” parking spot photos pretty regularly.