We've all complained about an abundance of handicapped spaces standing empty when faced with a packed parking lot. We're also pretty sure that anyone who relies on handicapped parking would gladly trade places with those in the far reaches of the parking lot if they could just have their mobility back.
Last September the council created a new ordinance that among other things, increased fines for those who decided to take the short walk away from those who really need it. The ordinance (O-07-65) requested by the mayor and sponsored by The Mayer, took the nuisance abatement route. If that sounds familiar it should - it's the same flawed premise that Marty's scam-eras are based upon.
In fact, the procedural mechanism seems to match the scam-era process almost exactly. The only substantive difference between the two is that the handicapped program didn't come with expensive cameras and a billing infrastructure - which as it turns out is the problem.
According to our Eyes down at Metro Court Chief Judge Judy Nakamura sent out a memo instructing Metro Court judges to dismiss tickets issued to handicapped parking violators. The Eyes have it that Judge Nakamura's memo claims that since the new ordinance passed Metro Court doesn't have jurisdiction over the citations which are directed to be heard by one of the city's tax collectors... uh, hearing officers.
It seems that while the ordinance specifies a procedure it didn't create the infrastructure necessary to issue the civil citations. What's more interesting is that apparently the civil process has supplanted the criminal one.
Decriminalizing handicapped parking violations was an attempt to increase the fines violators paid with the added benefit that the city and by extension the mayor and council got to keep the money. The result of Marty and Councilor Mayer's tinkering in misdemeanor criminal law is that no one is paying anything - decriminalized and dismissed.
11 comments:
What ordinance has Marty sponsored that passed constitutional review and didn't have to be re-wrote or changed?
Seems to me Marty is trying to usurp the Legislature and be King.
They're all da^%* crooks!!! What else is new!&*&^%^
Ah so now YOU approve the comments, ay Marty???
You'll get over it.....
34-8A-3 NMSA, Metropolitan court; jurisdiction
A. In addition...a metropolitan court shall have jurisdiction within the county boundaries over all:
(1) offenses and complaints pursuant to ordinances of the county and of the municipality located within the county which the court is located...
(2) civil actions in which the debt or sum claimed does not exceed ten thousand dollars...
Why, why, why, why, why does Metro Court continue to fail to exert jurisdiction as established by state law??? What exactly are the exceptions (other than undisputed parking tickets) to the words "shall" and "all" above? Is it a not a municipal ordinance? It doesn't matter if it's civil or criminal or dressed for the opera as a drag queen. Ditto on the scameras. C'mon Metro, respect your authoritaaaa.
OK, everybody repeat after me.....MUCK FARTIN CHAVEZ 2009!
The City of ABQ is corrupt, everyone knows that. Marty got off the ABQPAC because Katz and Bakas helped him out! So did Daskalos!
OK, everybody repeat after me.....PUCK FAUL HEH 2009!
Bring Back TrisH !!!!!
Back on topic here, why is it assumed that 110 handicapped people will all go to the mall at the same time (and in their own cars)? THeres a need for spaces but there seems to be an awful lot of them in this town. Of course you can get a placard for partial deafness also, which I have yet to see affect someones ability to walk ten yards.
Hey, that's unethical! You're gonna have to go to ethics training. It's gonna be held at Civic Plaza. The title of the movie is "an Inconvenient Truth-Part Two" which is a documentary detailing the political life of the Almighty-starting from when he was an attorney for the Worker's Compenstaion Div. right up to the Bernalillo County Courthouse Balloon Museum SCAM....
Yeah, it's inconvenient, but it's the TRUTH!!
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