UPDATED: Indianapolis resident Timothy Maguire thought he had purchased plenty of time on one of ParkIndy's electronic meters, but when he returned to his car, he discovered a $20 parking ticket. According to the parking meter's electronic records, he still had 24 minutes of unused time. He took digital images of the time left on his metered space, along with the ticket he was issued. After Maguire posted the information online by sharing it with his Facebook friends, Councilor Jason Holliday brought it to the Department of Public Works' attention, along with the assistance of Councilor Zach Adamson, by providing the digital images to ParkIndy, and through their efforts were able to get the ticket voided. Councilor Adamson shared the following reply he received from ParkIndy on Facebook:
Councillor, I’m sorry for the occurrence of this situation and can understand your concerns. I have confirmed that the City suspended the ticket referenced in your provided photos on 10/20. The public adoption of mobile meter payments has steadily risen since ParkIndy deployed the convenience in mid-2011. We are pleased to see continued growth and monitor the service provided by the vendor to ensure positive interactions across the system.
My team will research this case and see if we can determine what precipitated the issuance of the ticket. I would be happy to stop by your location for a quick meeting. How’s next Wednesday morning or Thursday afternoon look for you?
Thanks,
Adam Isen
ParkIndy, LLC A Xerox Company
12 comments:
For completeness sake, Councillor Jason Holliday brought the ticket to DPW's attention the day before and they had the ticket voided.
That is not to diminish Councillor Adamson's efforts, rather, to give all credit every place it is due.
That said...
It should not take a Councillor stepping in to right an erroneous ticket. The facebook conversation that sprung up after Maguire's post clearly showed that many credible, upstanding citizens had also fallen victim to ParkIndy's overzealous ticketing practices - practices that were supported by subsequent Court action and City Legal opinions.
There needs to be a public investigation of ParkIndy's procedures and testimony taken by members of the public who were forced to pay a ticket they did not deserve.
This awful and unfair fifty year parking meter shackle clamped tight on the City for a half century by Indianapolis’ worst mayor ever, ex-marine Greg Ballard, and the despicable City County Councilors of both parties who foolishly cast their votes in support of this travesty rankles me [and others] to this day. I am happy that this particular parking meter “customer” was able to use technology to document a wrong that never ever should have occurred; I am just one of the untold parking meter “customers” who lost money at these electronic bandits but was unable to conclusively “prove” such for remuneration.
And when you call ParkIndy or your political rep, no one really cares when these things occur. Let’s face it… had Mr. Maguire not been able to electronically document the false charge no Councilor would have come to Mr. Maguire’s defense. Maguire did the work; the Democrat running for re-election saw an opportunity and ran with it.
I detest these meters so much that I now avoid downtown as often as possible and I used to be one of THE downtown business proponents. I am a member of the early tide once called the “downtown pioneers” of the very early 1908s when there was little offered of a downtown that rolled up its pavements at 5:00 pm other than “Dodge City” neighborhoods and a few late night dance bars. I’ve abandoned my hair care professional at a Mass Av styling salon for an ex-urban shop with free shopping center parking lots, I prefer to dine at restaurants outside the overcrowded “hip” downtown/near downtown venues for out of Center Township establishments with free parking lots, and I sold my historic area home to escape the rising property taxes and the TIF depleted funds for my streets, safety, and infrastructure.
I often visit the Indy.gov site to try to find how the Councilors of both major parties vote. Do you think the Councilors make it easy to track votes they cast? With the upcoming election, wouldn’t it be just grand (no pun intended, Bob) for Marion County voters to track through time how their candidates for re-election voted on the multiple TIFs and crony deals supported by the Republicrat Party?
The City of Indianapolis is under the thumb of The One Party… corrupt Democrats AND Republicans whose most important goal is feathering their financial nests and those of their campaign contributors.
It's almost (almost) a shame the hefty Ballard may not run for a third term. He is denying Marion County the opportunity to eject him from office in what I believe could be a huge public humiliation for him.
Thanks for the correction, Pat.
This is Anon 6:37 eiyh s CORRECTION.... I intended to pen that I am an early NINETEEN EIGHTIES (1980's) "pioneer".... and NOT "early 1908's..."
Thanks for putting this issue out there, Gary! Ditto everything Pat "Had Enough Indy" said.
Had weird experience a year ago and called 800 number on my meter. After several rounds of are you sure you followed instructions and I told them I know some owners of the company and they fixed our problem over the phone. I was definitely in the right but what's up with these meter traps? Something was fishy about that deal!
Indy has parking meters? Wouldn't know. All good areas of town have lovely free parking lots.
Yet another reason to keep avoiding downtown. High restaurant taxes, parking meters, and no Interstate route to get there. Glad I spend my time at Keystone at the Crossing.
Great for Timothy. I use the mobile app myself and have always been a bit concerned should that happen.
But to these other guys who are commenting, talk about curmudgeonly bitter folk! Let it go for your own health's sake.
"Curmudgeonly bitter folks" who should "let it go for [their own] health's sake"?
Thank you for the dismissive and elitist sentiment, Doctor.
What is "curmudgeonly" about speaking the truth? What is stubborn about remembering these special political insider deals that work against the people and are crammed down the public throat to the advantage of the very special connected few? To connect "mental health" with a continued demand for responsible government officials and honesty in civic administration is disingenuous and a tact taken to confuse an issue and to smear the intelligence of one expressing an opposing view. And it smacks of a "re-education camp" mentality advocated by the likes of Stalin and The Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
"Forget about it" is exactly what the Democrat/Republican hypocrite professional politicians know people with your belief system will do. Voters who "forget about it" are an entrenched corrupt politician's dream; the politicians rest assured of being re-elected without being held responsible for their votes.
I've already let it go. Every time we're thinking about somewhere for dinner, and someone mentions downtown, we just laugh and laugh.
We've let downtown go, a long time ago.
I had the same thing happen to me when ParkIndy first took over. Luckily, I also had been using the mobile app, which kicks out a text and an email with all the particulars of your parking situation. With that email, I was able to call ParkIndy, inform them of their error, and they promptly voided the ticket. I wouldn't park downtown in a metered space without using the app.
Yet another reason to do take my business out of Downtown Indianapolis.
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