Errors on Parking Tickets Blamed for $635,000 Loss

The city may have lost more than $635,000 because of mistakes on tickets written by parking control officers, according to an audit.

City Controller Rick Tuttle recommended Friday that the city Department of Transportation improve training of officers and respond more quickly to complaints that parking signs are incorrect or meters are not working.

Tuttle concluded that out of 3.6 million tickets issued between 1995 and 1997, at least 8,749 were dismissed because of faulty citations. Tickets were sometimes not completely filled out by officers, contained the wrong make, license plate number or vehicle identification number for the cited car, noted the wrong violation or were illegible, according to the audit.

In some cases, the flaws may not have been the officer’s fault, such as when a license plate had been illegally switched. In others, motorists may have failed to adequately display disabled parking or other permits.

Tuttle said the 8,749 tickets dismissed cost the city $399,300 in lost revenue and $236,000 in administrative costs of processing and investigating appeals of the flawed citations.

Frances Banerjee, general manager of the Transportation Department, said her agency has upgraded efforts to make sure parking officers write tickets correctly.

Banerjee said it was remarkable that such a small percentage of tickets might have had mistakes.