Memorandum
City
of
Legal
Services
|
TO: |
Toni
Ramirez Wheeler, Director of Legal Services |
|
FROM: |
Scott
J. Miller, Staff Attorney |
|
Date: |
May
27, 2009 |
|
RE: |
Ordinance
8413 – Habitual Overtime Parking |
Section
17-417 of the current City Code establishes a habitual violator offense for
individuals that repeatedly commit overtime parking violations. Individuals who accumulate five or more
overtime parking convictions are subject to a fine of $50.00 under that
ordinance.
Because
of the way the ordinance is currently written, however, there are some concerns
that it violates the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy. For this reason, the ordinance has not been
enforced for several years.
Criminal
laws ordinarily accomplish this goal of accelerated punishment for repeat
offenders by including a sliding scale of penalties for repeat violations. By establishing this sort of penalty regime,
the double jeopardy concerns are not present because each violation is clearly
only being punished one time.
Ordinance
8413, in addition to making recommended changes in the fines for overtime
parking, reestablishes increased penalties for habitual traffic violators. Individuals who accumulate five or more
convictions of any of the City’s overtime parking laws within a 30 day period
are designated as habitual traffic violators and if they are cited for another
violation within the 30 day period the new violation is punished by a fine of
$50.00 plus court costs. The actual
crime charged is a violation of Section 17-304 (overtime meter parking) or
Section 17-415 (overtime offstreet parking).
With
the exception of imposing court costs for such a violation, the new law imposes
no new penalties or obligations. From
the perspective of the public, there is no substantial difference in
effect. Because experience has shown
that for some repeat offenders the existing nominal fine for overtime parking
does not deter their behavior, habitual-level parking violations are important
to ensure their compliance. For that
reason I recommend that this ordinance be passed.
Please
let me know if you have any questions.