ALDERMEN VENT PARKING TICKET IRE

APPEALS PROCESS SEEN AS UNFAIR TO DRIVERS

October 19, 1999

Chicago Tribune

Section: METRO CHICAGO

Gary Washburn, Tribune Staff Writer.

Motorists slapped with city parking tickets get a raw deal when they decide to fight instead of pay up, aldermen complained Monday.

Drivers are not told what evidence they need to defend themselves before hearing officers and, when the hearing officers rule against them, are discouraged from appealing because of the cost, the unhappy aldermen asserted at a City Council budget hearing.

The gripes came as Mayor Richard Daley proposes steep increases in parking fines that would boost city ticket revenues next year by 22 percent. Although aldermen are powerless to reform certain aspects of the system--the appeals process, for example, is governed by state law--they said it was important to raise the issue.

Before fines are raised, the city also should tell drivers what information they need to contest tickets and should correct street signs with conflicting parking prohibitions, said Ald. Helen Shiller (46th).

Then there is the problem of tickets issued erroneously, Shiller said. Some drivers have been ticketed for parking in "residents-only" zones when the zone did not exist. Others have been cited for parking on streets where construction work is scheduled even though their cars were parked before no-parking signs went up, she said.

Ald. Terry Peterson (17th) recounted the story of a constituent found liable by a city hearing officer for parking in spots reserved for disabled motorists even though she had a valid handicapped placard.

But perhaps the biggest complaint aired Monday centered on the difficulty of appealing the "guilty" verdicts of hearing officers.

People who want to fight further by taking their cases to Cook County Circuit Court must pay about $207 in filing fees.

The charge is "totally oppressive," declared Ald. Thomas Allen (38th), who said that the cost of appeal should not be higher than the fine imposed for the alleged parking offense.

"I don't think that is good public relations for government," said Allen, who reported "a lot of heat out there" from angry motorists. "Government should allow liberal access to the courts. . . . You have to allow people to have their day in court."

Peterson agreed, saying, "I think at some point, the City Council has to look at a way of easing the burden for residents to go before the courts to raise their concerns."

But there apparently is little the Daley administration can do, except to lobby for change in Springfield. That's because the General Assembly sets the schedule of filing fees, officials said.

"The way the law is written, (parking tickets) come under the court's Civil Division," said Carolyn Barry, spokeswoman for Clerk of the Circuit Court Aurelia Pucinski. "For any kind of filing in the Civil Division, the set price is $190."

Several additional fees bring the total for a ticket case to the $207 mark, Barry said.

Parking ticket justice has been a matter of debate since 1990, when the city's Administrative Hearings Department took over the responsibility for parking cases. The change, designed to increase efficiency, removed millions of cases from the clogged courts.

Approximately 3.5 million traffic tickets are written annually in Chicago. Typically only about 220,000 are contested by motorists who go before a hearing officer.

"Most people feel it is not worth it, (that) it doesn't do any good," Shiller said.

Of those who demanded a hearing last year, motorists won 60 percent of the time, while hearing officers--lawyers hired by the city--ruled against them in the remainder of cases, said James Reilly, director of the Department of Administrative Hearings.

An "infinitesimal number" of people found liable by hearing officers choose to appeal in Circuit Court, Reilly said. Through September of this year, only 72 cases were filed in the court, he said.

City Revenue Director Hugh Murphy, who contended Monday that the current system works well, said judges can waive filing fees if the motorist who is appealing has no money.

"Many people have the wherewithal, but they do not want to pay," Allen countered. "They are indignant, but not indigent."

Parking fines are an important source of revenue.

City officials expect to collect $90 million from motorists in 1999. With increased fines next year, they project an increase to $110 million.

Parking too close to a fire hydrant would cost $100 under Daley's proposal, up from $60 currently. And the penalty for placing a car in a no-parking zone in the Loop or in a "residents-only" area in a neighborhood would double to $50.

Copyright © 1999 Chicago Tribune Company