Two Parking Tickets in 20 Minutes

I walked to my car this past Friday and to no surprise there was a parking ticket on my windshield.  I was parked on the corner, and one could argue that I was a millimeter or two in the red, but I have come to accept this as a subsidy on top of my property taxes in Hoboken. 

I picked the ticket up off my windshield and noticed that there was another one under it.  At first I thought it was someone putting their ticket on my car, but the plates matched.  Then I looked to see if the violations were different thinking that Hoboken invented a new law that your car must be oriented in the celestial lunar position of the eternal equinox at exactly the time a ticket is issued, or something ridiculous like that because that’s what they do to residents to cover budget gaps.  They know I'm not going to go to court and fight a parking ticket, so it's easy money. 

I confirmed that it wasn’t a different violation, so I looked at the dates and time, both the same date, and 20 minutes apart.  I was agitated at this point, and began my drive to work.  I found the faithful public servant leaning near Shop Right conducting his plot to take over the world, and pulled my car over to speak with him.  He was slightly ignorant of the issue at first, and had to step away for a minute to confirm the ticket.  He entered his delorean ticketing vehicle, which the city council spared no expense because this one came with the flux capacitor allowing the officer to go back in time and realize what he did was a mistake after five  minutes in his car on the walkie talkie.  He explained that I would have to go and plead this at the Parking Authority and that there was nothing he could do.  I then took off and started my day in frustration. 

I called the authority later that day and immediately met the Hoboken Wall of Resistance.  “Sir you will have to go to court to plead this case.”  I of course argued, and she explained that I would have to call back to speak to a supervisor.  So I wrote the following email to the email on the Hoboken Authority’s website: parking@hobokennj.org

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am a resident in Hoboken, and I am hoping that you can help me with the violations I received this morning from two of your officers (see attached):

Ticket 0905 P37 134770

Ticket 0905 P29 133417

The violations were issued within 20 minutes of each other  (8:58 AM and 9:18AM on 11/1/2013) at the same location (450 6th St) for the same violation: 39:4-138E: Improper Parking within 25 FT of a crosswalk.  

I saw the street sweeper and the officer issuing the violations after receiving the tickets, and I asked him why I received two violations.  The officer responded that I would have to go to your offices to get the one violation removed.  I am not arguing the violation, but please note that my rear bumper was questionably in the red while it was parked and the tickets issued.  

I do not know if there is any legal precedent for issuing the same violation within 20 minutes of each other, but I do not believe that it is fair or ethically/morally right to give a person the same violation within 20 minutes of each other.  Further to the matter, I was hoping that I would not have to come into the parking authority or go to court to and plead this matter as the violations were clearly visible on my windshield at the same location.  

Can you please advise if we can address one of the violations by voiding it without me coming to your offices or having to go to court for clearly a matter that was a mistake on the officers' parts.  I would also like to request the courtesy that both be voided due to the time I had to address this matter.  

Your response to the matter would be appreciated.  

Scott L. 

I received the following email immediately after sending it saying that the email is no longer valid and that it needs to be sent to another email address.  Seems as though they make it hard on anyone to contact then.  Is this a methodical plan to deter you or just a simple mistake? 

I received a voicemail on Monday and called back Tuesday to discover the person was off with the Holiday.  No issue there, so I called back today.  The woman who left the message, who I will not name, explained that I would have to go to court to fight the tickets.  I then asked for that in writing and explained to her to notify her supervisors that I was bringing this matter to the media due to its ridiculousness. 

An hour later, my statements had the desired effect.  The woman called me back and advised that they would void one of the tickets.  We ended the call with a polite, but annoyed thank you.  The woman explained that she would provide the response to my email in writing. 

An hour later, I received a call from a gentleman at the Parking Authority explaining that he needed me to come in to the office with the ticket.  I asked why and did not get a valid reason.  I was busy at this point and just agreed to waste another hour of my life on this issue of principle hoping that by going down there they would void both tickets for the time and aggravation they cause from the negligence of their staff. 

After getting home tonight, I walked down to the Authority and luckily found no line at around 8:30 PM.  The supervisor I spoke to came out and greet me with my email and a copy of the tickets I emailed to them (see attachment in this post).  I asked why this couldn’t be taken care of over the phone with the email, and there was no valid reason given.  I also voiced my frustration of the time I spend with this.  To his credit, he listened, and even asked if there was a suggestion I had to correct this.  This was something I expected of as manager, and I responded that the systems should not let an officer to issue the same tickets within 24 hours for the same vehicle for specific types of tickets like parking within a crosswalk.  I also suggested that there be some prudence given to window agents that answer the phone to address matters such as this immediately so no one would have to go to court.  He explained that the only reason this was being waived was because the tickets were so close to one another, and that had they been issued on the same day, but further apart, then I would have been forced to go to court.  I responded that this is steeling, because there is no way I would spend two to four hours in a courtroom. 

IN the end, the city did the right thing, but they should be more diligent with situations like this, and use a little common sense so that the hard working tax payers aren’t forced to jump through the three ringed red tapped circus that plagues this city!