New law to crack down on parking violators

Workers are taking parking spaces needed for downtown patrons.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — The city could approve a new law as early as next Wednesday that would decriminalize parking violators, but put enough teeth into its enforcement to deter the practice.

“We have to get the word out that we’re going to be collecting the tickets,” Warren Mayor Michael O’Brien said during a traffic and safety committee meeting Tuesday, during which the legislation was discussed and recommended to city council.

Under the new law, a parking violation would no longer carry the potential for conviction on a misdemeanor offense, but could result in the offender’s being unable to renew or transfer his vehicle registration through the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

The current problem

O’Brien said the proposed 12-page ordinance required a great deal of research by the city’s legal staff.

He expects it to come up for a final reading and enactment by council at a meeting next Wednesday.

O’Brien and Anthony Iannucci Jr., director of the Warren Redevelopment and Planning Corp., said the current method of policing parking laws is not working, and the free two-hour parking spaces downtown are being filled up with downtown employees instead of visitors.

Since 1999, WRAP has employed parking employees to log license plate numbers of vehicles parked in the free two-hour spaces around the downtown area. Those parking longer than two hours or violating other parking laws have received tickets.

But in many cases, the violators are not paying them, O’Brien said.

A new direction

It is difficult to enforce Warren’s parking law, Iannucci said, because it requires the city to cite the alleged offender into court within 30 days, and that is expensive and difficult for the city to do.

The price of parking violations would not change in the legislation, Iannucci said. It is $7 for most offenses, $17 if not paid after 10 days, and $250 for parking in a physically handicapped space.

To trigger the “hold” part of the law regarding vehicle registration, a person would have to be guilty of three parking violations within the past three years, Iannucci said.

If the law is approved, separate legislation would be needed later to enact a 30 percent collection fee that would be charged to people who owe fines, O’Brien said.

The city has records of violations dating back to 1999, Iannucci noted.

runyan@vindy.com