New Haven Independent

This Politician Wants To Give You Money

by Melissa Bailey | June 3, 2009 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

If your car gets booted or towed by mistake — which seems to happen a lot — Alderman Carl Goldfield wants the city to pay you for your “pain and suffering.”

Goldfield, president of the Board of Aldermen, suggested the idea to colleagues for the first time this week.

He said he’s been concerned to read about incidents of erroneous tows and boots. The tales of woe include that of Dorothy Johnson, whose car was towed five times because a plate-scanning device mistook an M for a W. In another case, the city mistakenly towed eight cars due to a screwup at the tax office.

In yet another case, an East Rock woman was trying to get two sick boys to the doctor when she looked out the window and saw her car had been snatched, also due to a tax office glitch. When she tried to get her money back, she found out the city wouldn’t pay for its error: She was repaid only when towing lot owner Tony Juliano chose to cut her a check out of kindness.

Goldfield said these cases must be addressed.

“We’re going to look into a program where if you are unjustly booted or towed, the city will actually pay you for your pain and suffering,” he said.

The idea arose in a closed-door Democratic caucus meeting between aldermen Monday evening in City Hall. Aldermen were considering a proposal on their agenda that night that would lower the threshold by which cars can be booted for unpaid parking tickets from $200 to $100.

The ordinance amendment passed the aldermanic Finance Committee by a 5-1 vote on May 13.

At that meeting, only West River Alderman Yusuf Shah objected to the bill. (Aldermen Perez, Jackson-Brooks, Goldfield, Silverman, and Sandman voted for it.) In the Democrats’ caucus Monday, concerns about the proposal appeared to be more widespread. Several aldermen said they recognized the bill’s revenue-generating merits, but said it was too aggressive or needed to be coupled with some kind of reform.

Instead of taking a vote as planned, aldermen decided to pass over the bill Monday in order to work on an amendment.

The mayor’s budget staff offered the proposal as a way to improve collections on out-of-towners who owe tickets, especially students who leave at the end of the year, often without paying their bills. About 70 percent of the city’s parking violators are not New Haven residents, according to city officials.

The city tried to close in on that population last year by proposing an aggressive initiative targeting scofflaws with out-of-state plates.

At the time, Alderman Goldfield questioned that proposal’s legality. He ended up being right: City Hall lawyers concluded the city can’t constitutionally hold non-residents to a different standard. The bill quietly died.

Goldfield said he finds more merit in the city’s latest proposal.

At the latest count, the city was owed about $11 million in outstanding parking tickets. Only a small percent of those scofflaws are eligible to be booted under current rules. Dropping the boot threshold from $200 to $100 would add 39,547 cars to the boot list, amounting to $6.9 million in revenue, according to city officials.

“It’s compelling,” said Goldfield of the proposal. “There’s a lot of money to be collected from students.”

However, he suggested that the proposal not be passed until something is done to address the erroneous tows. He said he would explore adding an amendment to the bill offering money back for people whose cars have been mistakenly captured by the boot or towing hook.

Fair Haven Alderman Joey Rodriguez seconded Goldfield’s concern. He was one of many aldermen who were poised to vote against the proposal Monday.

“I think that the threshold of $100 is too low,” he said. “I feel for a single mother of two kids who perhaps got a $50 ticket, and before she knows it,” the ticket has doubled and she finds a bright orange clamp immobilizing her car.

“There are a lot of kinks in the system,” Rodriguez added. “We should take care of those first.”

East Rock Alderman Roland Lemar, whose ward contains many students who would likely be affected by the proposal, agreed that the city should address its mistakes before expanding the powers of the mighty boot. He said he’s not happy with the city’s performance on seizing cars, and its “disregard” for people who’ve been erroneously towed.

“We create serious complications in people’s lives” by booting or towing their cars, he said. “We need to refine the current operation before we bring in a whole new batch of potential victims to our less-than-perfect system.”

“We need to make sure we’re not stranding our residents.”

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Comments

Posted by: Walt | June 3, 2009 12:15 PM

Good idea and the City employee who is at fault should pay for it, not the other taxpayers,

Same stuff if the City sues the wrong person for real estate taxes as they did me under the Cuticello regime.

Cuticello and his successors can cause serious hassling of innocent folk if they continue the carelessness which prevailed under
Cuticello

They will likely keep doing it unless they suffer when caught.

Posted by: jay | June 3, 2009 12:47 PM

okay, how about, instead of the board of aldermen imposing yet another tax on the people of New Haven (and yes it would be like another tax, because it will be us taxpayers that have to pay that $100.00), they really look into the system and make recommendations, if they have legitimate concerns. And let's look at this from a statistical point of view. What percentage of tows or boots are an error? And the stories these aldermen keep on coming up with... ""I feel for a single mother of two kids who perhaps got a $50 ticket, and before she knows it," the ticket has doubled and she finds a bright orange clamp immobilizing her car"". I believe the change stated that they have had to receive a number of notices before they could receive the bright orange clamp - I think with all those notices, she would know what is coming. The story is - I pay my bills, everyone should do their part - if you don't, then there should be consequences. AND I SHOULD NOT PAY FOR SOMEONES MISTAKE. IF THERE IS A PROBLEM, boa, THEN FIX IT!

Posted by: Seth | June 3, 2009 1:23 PM

Innocent people should be compensated for the shortcomings of the city.

Students need to be held accountable for their actions as well. Just as the city is willing to tow residents, they should be patrolling to have students towed as well. Sounds like the Yale police and NHPD have to have a sit-down abut division of labor and the collection of debt.

Most people are paid bi-weekly. I don't believe that they work tickets into their budget, so there should be at least 1 month allowed before additional charges are compiled.

Posted by: Patricia | June 3, 2009 1:36 PM

Instead of making more of a mess why not send letters to the University's who have students that owe tickets? Maybe with their help the city can collect some money and stop taking from the residents who can hardly pay to stay. My mom has lived in New Haven for over 50 years, loves her home and her neighbors but it is becoming very hard for her to pay the taxes now. Another idea is to have MVD handle the issue!!!! link computer systems so when someone who owes for tickets they must pay or they can not register their car, the fine is much more of a burdan, no one likes to stand in line at MVD.!!!!

Posted by: Streever | June 3, 2009 5:31 PM

Great work Goldfield & kudos to Lemar--why not make it, a 200 dollar threshold, and lower it to 100 after x time has passed unless the person has started some type of payment plan (20$ a week?)? that way you avoid the instance of penalizing a hard-working person who just can't get the $$$ together.

Posted by: Look&Listen | June 4, 2009 2:48 AM

There are flaws in every system, and I applaud Goldfield's effort to try and bring a some sort of remedy to our city's past boot problem.

Posted by: Margaret | June 4, 2009 8:14 AM

My car was towed in error (in 2006)it was a NIGHTMARE at 5pm at night. No one cared or wanted to know anything. At first I thought it was stolen. The police station told me that I had to goto City Hall the next day to straighten out the problem. They applied my check to someone else with the same last name!!!! My husband had to take the day off of work and so did I. Than I to get the car on Middletown Ave. Where there was a large sign stating not responsible damage or lose items. Thank god everthing was their. Town Hall told me well we voided the tow charges. Thanks!!!!! I didn't owe any taxes!!! What about our lose time at work. I believe that everyone should pay their taxes but people should compensated when an error is made.

Posted by: JSJ | June 4, 2009 12:27 PM

Alderman Shah- why did you vote against this amendment?

Posted by: abg | June 4, 2009 5:00 PM

OF COURSE people should be compensated for the stupidity and negligence of the City -- all one can say about this proposal is "duh"

This Politician Wants To Give You Money

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