Decriminalized and Dismissed

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.