Have your vehicle's license plate number or vehicle identification number ready.
Unpaid parking tickets have cost Omaha's public schools and the city more than $1.4 million since the end of 2005.
Mayor Jim Suttle planned to ask the City Council to raise parking fines and tack on late fees to crack down on those who ignore parking tickets. But he changed his mind after the Downtown Improvement District Association asked him to hold off.
Joe Gudenrath, the association's director, said Wednesday that he asked the Mayor's Office to postpone higher parking fees until his group completes a downtown parking study next year.
The group is worried that raising parking fees could scare people off from shopping or dining downtown, and the study will look at that issue among others.
“The concern is that people won't come down here,” Gudenrath said. “But changes can also have positive impacts, too.”
Omaha issued nearly 62,000 parking tickets last year. In a typical year, about 40 percent never get paid. For 2008, that would add up to nearly 25,000 unpaid tickets.
Suttle's administration wants to raise the fine from the current $16 to $20. The city also is considering adding a $20 late fee.
Habitual parking violators can be towed, but City Prosecutor Marty Conboy said that has not enough.
“Right now there's no real downside to ignoring a ticket,” he said.
Higher parking fines and late fees both would require City Council approval, but so far a proposal has not been introduced.
Conboy said that if the city had a late fee on top of the cost of a ticket, that might entice people to pay their fines. The city could then use the extra revenue to go after habitual parking violators, he said.
Violators have 15 days to pay the fine. Under current city policy, those with three or more delinquent parking tickets are notified by mail that they have been put on a tow list.
Suttle spokesman Ron Gerard said sending a letter after just one overdue ticket is not efficient.
“By the second or third offense, (it's) a more cost-effective means of enforcement,” he said. “You could potentially collect two or three tickets, instead of just one, at the same cost of the mailing.”
A trip to the impound lot can be expensive — a minimum of $135 for the tow, plus the cost of any unpaid tickets and possible vehicle storage fees.
But the city has to catch the violator first, and Conboy said the city currently doesn't actively pursue those with unpaid tickets.
He said his office rarely seeks an arrest warrant for someone who ignores tickets for an expired meter — the most common type of parking violation.
City parking attendants do carry lists of habitual violators. If they recognize the vehicle, they order a tow.
Besides downtown, the city has parking meters at Midtown Crossing at Turner Park, near Creighton University and along 24th Street in south Omaha, said Public Works Director Bob Stubbe.
The Downtown Improvement District's study is scheduled to begin next summer and could be completed by the end of 2010.
The group formed in 2007 to work on downtown maintenance, public safety and promotion issues. The city ordinance that created the group included a requirement to look at parking.
Gudenrath said the cost of the study has not been finalized. Its funding will rely in part on private contributions.
That's one reason the study won't begin until next summer. Gudenrath said a potential donor would like to wait until the start of the new fiscal year before shelling out the money.
The study will review the downtown parking system and look for ways to improve it, Gudenrath said. But the study probably will also review parking enforcement, fines and parking meter rates.
Gudenrath said his group will weigh whether the city should raise parking fines and how that might affect downtown visitors.
“It just depends on what kind of ripple that change creates,” he said. “Does a higher ticket push people away from downtown or does it just push them to use a parking lot instead?”
Higher parking fines and late fees could boost revenue for the city and local public schools.
Conboy estimated that more than 90,000 parking tickets have gone unpaid since the end of 2005. Based on a $16 fine per ticket, that's more than $1.4 million in lost revenue.
Of the current $16 fine, $7 goes to school districts within the city limits, including the Omaha Public Schools, Elkhorn, Millard and Westside. The remaining $9 goes into the city's general fund.
This year, as the city grappled with a budget shortfall, the city put off plans to beef up parking enforcement, said City Traffic Engineer Todd Pfitzer.
This year's budget included funding to add a full-time parking attendant, but budget cuts put a stop to the hire, he said.
The city currently has the equivalent of 3.5 positions devoted to parking enforcement, Pfitzer said.
Omaha isn't alone in wanting to go after people who don't pay parking fines.
Des Moines officials are looking at teaming up with the state to garnishee income tax refunds for those with unpaid tickets. About 86 percent of the parking tickets issued in Des Moines have been paid, said Amelia Hamilton-Morris, the city's public information officer.
Conboy hopes higher parking fees would cause more people to pay their tickets in Omaha as well. Right now, only 60 percent of tickets are paid. Omaha last raised parking fines in 2001, from $13 to the current $16.
“It hopefully will have a positive effect,” said Conboy. “We're still running the city's parking the way it's been run for half a century.”
Contact the writer:
444-3100, maggie.obrien@owh.com
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