Clerk of courts releases 2nd list of parking-ticket repeat offenders

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Parking fines 2

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The latest release from Youngstown's list of parking ticket delinquencies.

The city’s clerk of courts office plans to target additional people who have failed to pay numerous parking tickets.

About two weeks after providing a list of the top 60 with the most unpaid parking tickets, the office compiled and issued a list Tuesday of the next 60.

The top owe $110,924, while Nos. 61 to 120 owe a combined $58,914.

Several of the people on the second list are former Youngstown State University students and those who work downtown – as are those in the top 60.

Of note is Ra’Cole Taltoan, who lost the Democratic primary for Youngstown City Council’s 2nd Ward earlier this month and operates a business at 20 Federal Place, is 119th with $670 in unpaid tickets.

Overall, there are more than $1 million in unpaid tickets, most of them written on cars downtown and near the YSU campus, said Clerk of Courts Sarah Brown-Clark.

Some of those tickets date back two decades.

The top 120 will have warrant blocks placed on their vehicles so when they go to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, they won’t be able to renew their license-plate tags unless they pay the city the fees for the unpaid tickets, Brown-Clark said.

“Also, I’m giving their license plates to the police for towing,” she said. “But it will be hard to find some of them because they change their license plates.”

Brown-Clark is seeking approval from city council to approve legislation that would allow police to put tire boots and/or windshield barnacles on vehicles of the worst repeat offenders. She initially said it would be for the top 60. She said Tuesday it would be for the top 120, and it could be expanded to others depending on how many tickets they have.

When asked why some unpaid tickets are 20 years old, Brown-Clark said she’s taken a number of steps in the past to get people to pay up with minimal success.

“I’ve sent them to collections. I’ve had a journal entry to do warrant blocks. I did an amnesty program,” she said. “I have tried to do everything I could. That’s why I’m being more firm this time.”

She said she won’t do another amnesty program as too many people eligible for the last one in 2013 didn’t pay. During that program, the clerk of courts allowed people to pay the original $10 ticket with the late fees waived.

Since she raised the issue of getting tougher with those with frequent parking tickets at a May 15 city council finance committee meeting, Brown-Clark said, “We’ve been getting payments consistently. But it’s still not enough.”

If you’re on the list and have died, the office plans to take you off the list, she said.

The Vindicator reported May 16 that Theodore Macejko Jr., an attorney who died eight years ago, was No. 53 on the list with $1,140 in unpaid parking tickets.

The top 60 include Heidi Hanni, a former attorney, at seventh with $2,829 in unpaid tickets; a car registered to Mahoning County at 12th with $2,490 that The Vindicator reported last week was given to Robert Bush, director of the county’s Job and Family Services department when he was chief of criminal prosecution at the county prosecutor’s office; and former county Probate Judge Mark Belinky in 19th place with $1,998 owed.

Parking tickets are $10. The cost goes up to $20 if it’s not paid after 20 days and to $30 if it’s unpaid after 30 days.

Tickets for parking in handicapped spots is $25, and increases to $50 if not paid after 10 days.