Geneva to give more time to pay parking tickets

Geneva is tweaking its parking enforcement again, as changes made last year are proving problematic.

"This is an attempt by government to be more flexible to something that just doesn't work," police Cmdr. Brian Maduzia told aldermen at a committee meeting Monday.

Instead of giving you just 10 days to pay, violators will be allowed 30 days, under the proposed change.

Last year, the council decided parking fines were too lenient. People were choosing to deliberately violate the laws, particularly people who were parking in downtown spaces longer than allowed. The council raised the fine for that from $2 to $5. It also started making repeat parking offenders pay more, up to $40 a ticket for those who transgress more than 16 times in a calendar year.

It also raised the fine for prohibited parking, such as parking in front of a fire hydrant, from $10 to $25.

People who didn't pay their parking tickets within 10 days had to pay late fees, with fees increasing every 15 days. In some cases of prohibited parking, that could rise to as high as $150 if not paid within 60 days.

"It's been wildly unpopular," Maduzia said, with people telling him a $150 fine for parking seemed outrageous compared with speeding tickets.

The new plan also didn't work well with the DOS-based computer software the department uses for keeping track of tickets. The system is not capable of notifying another system used for sending letters to people who missed payment deadlines. Notices had to be hand-entered, and sometimes people didn't receive them until after the next late-fee deadline had passed.

"I got phone call after phone call after phone call," Maduzia said.

The proposed change also caps the maximum fine at $100.

The council gave preliminary approval Monday, and will take a binding vote Monday.