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City officials consider raising citation amounts

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Also by Cara Harshman:

Freezing storm strikes Madison once more (February 18, 2008)
City to scrutinize polls' accessibility (February 18, 2008)
Madison’s council to clarify open records law (February 15, 2008)
Kumar introduces Venezuelan county sisterhood (February 13, 2008)

by Cara Harshman

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Already 10 snow emergencies deep this winter, city officials set a date to discuss increasing the price of parking citations during snow emergencies at the Board of Estimates meeting Monday.

The proposal on the table to increase citations from $30 to $60 for cars parked downtown was referred for discussion to a meeting Feb. 29. The handful of alders who sat on the board said a discussion about an increase should be open to all alders, so the city can move in the right direction to communicate policy changes to the public.

“People have told us that since the fines are so low, people have little incentive to move their cars,” said Ald. Eli Judge, District 8, in a phone interview.

Failure to comply with snow emergency alternate side parking rules prompted Mayor Dave Cieslewicz to consider increasing the fines, he said, adding more people heeded rules during early February’s snowstorm than the ice storm last weekend.

According to streets superintendent Al Schumacher, parking officials issued 380 parking citations last weekend, compared to past snow emergencies when the number reached 886, according to George Dreckmann, spokesperson for the streets division.

“Compliance hasn’t been good with snow emergency regulation for the most part, which makes it difficult to plow and much harder for everyone to get around on the streets,” said George Twigg, spokesperson for Cieslewicz.

Overnight alternate side parking rules go into effect during snow emergencies — park on the even side of the street on even-numbered days and odd side of the street on odd-numbered days — and according to Michael May, attorney for the city of Madison, “anytime people are in violation of the parking code we have the right to tow.”

If, after a 48-hour notice, a car on the street is still parked and blocking the path of emergency vehicles and other vehicles, Schumacher said the city starts towing cars, saving the streets division a lot of snow removal work in weeks after the storm.

As there is no towing criterion in writing yet, Schumacher said the decision about whether or not to tow is visual. The city charges $30 for the parking ticket and $50 for towing fees.

Ald. Brenda Konkel, District 2, asked how the city will notify people downtown if they break the parking rules.

To increase awareness among the student population about snow emergencies, Judge said he created a Facebook group that already has a few hundred members.

“One of the many things I’ve been trying to tackle is that it’s very difficult to get the message out to the student population, especially about mundane things such as the streets,” Judge said.

Twigg said the city is talking with University of Wisconsin administrators to let students know about parking rules via e-mails or text messages. Currently, UW posts snow emergency information on the My UW Portal home screen.

The city provides information about snow emergencies on the city of Madison website and a telephone hotline, and residents can sign up for a mass e-mail about snow emergencies, Dreckmann said.

If passed, the $30 increase in fine would be implemented next winter.

— Taylor Cox contributed to this story.

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