Paul Bass Photos
Zamir: “These people aren’t taking it seriously.”
The offending line.
New Haven plans to forgive thousands of dollars of parking fines because a city enforcer — who is now serving a five-day unpaid suspension — wrote “Beat me off” on all their tickets.
The phrase appeared on 110 tickets Aaron Rajewski issued between June 28 and July 5.
Using the app that traffic enforcement officers use to issue tickets, he filled in all the boxes correctly, except for one key change. Next to the word “beat,” asking for his area of enforcement, he wrote the words, “me off.”
A handful of neighbors filed appeals with the transit department, leading officials to adjudicate the tickets and forgive the fines, as well as issue a letter of apology to all 110 ticketholders.
Rajewski.
The presumed practical joke got the parking enforcement officer five days of paid administrative leave, followed by five days of unpaid suspension starting this Wednesday, according to city transit chief Doug Hausladen. Adjudicating the 110 tickets will lose the city $3,020 before any potential late fees, he said.
Rajewski’s actual beat — despite the claim he made 110 times — was Prospect Street and Hillhouse Avenue as well as Wooster Square.
One of those tickets was a welcome-to-New-Haven greeting for Meredith Brown, who was in the process of moving from out of state into a new home in Wooster Square.
“It’s kind of unsettling coming into a new neighborhood when that’s the kind of eye that’s watching you,” she said.
Local attorney Yonatan Zamir was the lucky recipient of two now-to-be-forgiven $20 “Beat Me Off” tickets on the windshield of his 2004 Subaru Outback.
Zamir said he chuckled at first.
“Then I got a little annoyed,” he said. “I just paid $60 in parking tickets a few days before. I get it that they’re cracking down. I get it that. This is them trying to fill their budget hole. I get it,” Zamir said.
But “it stings,” Zamir said. “You feel like, ‘These people aren’t taking it seriously.’”
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Hausladen: Extremely sorry.
Hausladen got off a plane last Tuesday night and turned on his phone. He had received more than 30 texts from colleagues, alerting him that someone had appealed a ticket for offensive language.
Parking enforcement supervisor Ray Willis was the first to see the appeal that night. He fired off an email just before 8:30 p.m. to Hausladen and Michael Mohler, deputy transit director, quoting the citation: “‘I find the vulgar statements on this parking ticket (image attached) offensive and I request its dismissal. I’ve reviewed previous tickets I’ve paid, and at least one other has this offensive and vulgar language on it that I did not notice before. If the Dept of Traffic and Parking thinks its ok to joke and be offensive on parking citations, I believe they can dismiss this one. Thank you.’”
Willis investigated the concern and found the problem. “I found that 715 is entering ‘me off’ as his beat, effectively reading on the ticket ‘Beat me off,’” he wrote to his directors, after dismissing the ticket.
Hausladen got the email at 8:52 p.m. — along with many text messages — and forwarded the problem up to the city officials in the economic development office.
Matthew Nemerson, economic development administrator, urged transit officials to take the matter seriously.
“The trust and respect of the citizens is paramount. This offensive and juvenile behavior — if true and not some software aberration — needs to be dealt with. Please look into it and get back to me tomorrow. We will need to inform Laurence [Grotheer, mayoral spokesperson] and the Mayor to be prepared it becomes a public issue,” he wrote.
But it wasn’t a software aberration, an investigation found.
Hausladen immediately put Rajewski on administrative leave, at 9:01 a.m. last Wednesday.
“There is no excuse, justification, or tolerance for scores of recently issued, defaced parking tickets – the city has voided and forgiven all of them, with letters of apology to ticketed car owners,” city spokesperson Laurence Grotheer said. “After a quick, thorough, internal investigation the employee responsible was disciplined, and the city’s ticketing software was upgraded to try and prevent anything like this from happening in the future.”
Zamir’s ticket.
It became clear during the following investigation that Rajewski thought of his actions as a harmless joke during a “lapse in judgement,” Hausladen said. Rajewski did not respond to requests for comment left Wednesday at his cellphone number.
Still, Hausladen called the suspension “very serious disciplinary action for a very serious action. While the intent was not malicious, the duties and trust of our department are extremely important and consistency is extremely important,” he said.
Enforcement officers hand out about 140,000 tickets each year, he said; one bad ticket calls the rest into question. Parking enforcement is not ultimately about raising revenue for the city, but about regulating traffic, ensuring public safety and promoting economic development, he said. It’s a way to ensure enough parking turnover that customers for local businesses have spots to leave their cars. Parking meters generate about $5.5 million in revenue, while tickets generate about $6 million, he said.
Rajewski’s penalty was discussed by Hausladen, labor relations officials, and Corporation Counsel John Rose, who took in numerous factors before making a decision.
“I look forward to this individual coming back to work … learning a lesson and growing from this experience,” Hausladen said. “Our employee definitely screwed up. I’m not sure if someone’s life needs to be ruined over this. At the same time, it’s extremely serious.”
Hausladen urged anyone who has received a “beat me off” ticket to stop by the city transit department on the ground floor of 200 Orange St. to get it forgiven. He also has “mailing labels ready to go” by 5 p.m. with apology letters for each of the 110 victims of the prank.
Hausladen thought hard to find a “silver lining” to the ticket fiasco, ultimately landing on the fact that advances in technology and staff training led the appeal to be found within five business days of Rajewski’s first offensive ticket. Just a few years ago, it could have taken six months.
Memo to Hausladen:
"Enforcement officers hand out about 140,000 tickets each year, he said; one bad ticket calls the rest into question. Ticket enforcement is not a big source of revenue for the city, he said. It's a way to ensure enough parking turnover that customers for local businesses have spots to leave their cars."
On the contrary Mr. Hausladen, ticket enforcement is in the city revenue budget as "received from fines; parking tags" $5,200,000 for the 15/16 budget year. "Not a big source of revenue". Really$$.
"It became clear during the following investigation that Rajewski thought of his actions as a harmless joke during a "lapse in judgement," Hausladen said". "Rajewski's penalty was discussed by Hausladen, labor relations officials, and Corporation Counsel John Rose, who took in numerous factors before making a decision.
"I look forward to this individual coming back to work ... learning a lesson and growing from this experience," Hausladen said. "
Memo to Nemerson... And you said all your employees were treated equally, what about Jefferson and James, comparable to Rajewski?, or, not .