本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Parking firm takes city to court
Municipal Parking Authority wants ticket bylaw quashed
City wants drivers to report any private tickets they receive
KERRY GILLESPIE
CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF
If you get a parking ticket that doesn't have a City of Toronto logo on it, don't tear it up, take it to your local police station.
The next time a private parking ticket is put under a windshield wiper, the firm that put it there will be the one to pay, Rick Yowfoo, a Toronto police parking services supervisor, said.
"Every single ticket will result in a charge," he said yesterday.
Any ticket without a City of Toronto logo and issued after July 22, when the city passed a bylaw making such tickets illegal, should be reported to police at 416-808-6604, he said.
Police already know of illegal ticketing by at least half a dozen companies, including Impark, the largest private lot company in Toronto, and Municipal Parking Authority, Yowfoo said.
Impark declined to comment yesterday.
But Municipal Parking Authority, whose tickets are nearly identical to official city ones, is fighting back.
Yesterday, it asked the Superior Court of Ontario to quash the city's bylaw banning it from handing its own tickets to people who park on private property past the time they paid for or who don't bother to pay at all.
Councillors who passed the bylaw said it protects people from unscrupulous practices.
"The city says it's consumer protection, we say it's a cash grab," lawyer Louis Sokolov said. He says the city has overstepped its legal bounds and the bylaw is designed to boost city revenue at the expense of private property owners.
Instead of issuing their own tickets, private companies can have their staff train as municipal licensing enforcement officers, who can issue city parking tickets. But the city and not the private company gets the fine.
The first court date will be next month, Sokolov said.
Meanwhile: "The city feels the bylaw is within our authority and it remains in force," spokesperson Brad Ross said.
Last year, the city made $4.8 million in parking fines. Impark alone hands out 50,000 tickets a year. If all were at the lowest level, $39, that's nearly $2 million.
When the city passed its bylaw, several companies threatened to fight it. So far, all most of them have done is ignore it.
Two weeks after the city declared them illegal, Amanda Schwartz got a private parking ticket at York University.
Schwartz, a broke 24-year-old student, still can't decide whether she should pay the ticket she got last Friday.
The city and police say she shouldn't pay because the ticket is illegal. But York University, which parks about 35,000 cars a day, withholds student transcripts until tickets are paid.
The university is trying to decide what to do about the bylaw but, for now, will keep handing out its own tickets to ensure order in its parking lots, spokesperson Nancy White said.
But, says Councillor Howard Moscoe: "If the objective is enforcement, then a City of Toronto ticket does the job.
"If their objective is to squeeze money out of students, they'll continue with their phony ticket ploy," Moscoe (Ward 15, Eglinton-Lawrence) said.
If you get a city ticket, you have to eventually pay it or you can't get your licence plate renewed.
But generally, the only way private tickets can be enforced is by using a collection agency.
Police say they get 500 complaints each month from people over private parking tickets. Strong-arm collection tactics, including phone calls in the middle of the night and threats of notifying credit rating companies if the bill isn't paid, are routine complaints. Others include fraud, being ticketed on public property or when parked with a valid ticket, or excessive fines and lack of appeal process.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
Municipal Parking Authority wants ticket bylaw quashed
City wants drivers to report any private tickets they receive
KERRY GILLESPIE
CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF
If you get a parking ticket that doesn't have a City of Toronto logo on it, don't tear it up, take it to your local police station.
The next time a private parking ticket is put under a windshield wiper, the firm that put it there will be the one to pay, Rick Yowfoo, a Toronto police parking services supervisor, said.
"Every single ticket will result in a charge," he said yesterday.
Any ticket without a City of Toronto logo and issued after July 22, when the city passed a bylaw making such tickets illegal, should be reported to police at 416-808-6604, he said.
Police already know of illegal ticketing by at least half a dozen companies, including Impark, the largest private lot company in Toronto, and Municipal Parking Authority, Yowfoo said.
Impark declined to comment yesterday.
But Municipal Parking Authority, whose tickets are nearly identical to official city ones, is fighting back.
Yesterday, it asked the Superior Court of Ontario to quash the city's bylaw banning it from handing its own tickets to people who park on private property past the time they paid for or who don't bother to pay at all.
Councillors who passed the bylaw said it protects people from unscrupulous practices.
"The city says it's consumer protection, we say it's a cash grab," lawyer Louis Sokolov said. He says the city has overstepped its legal bounds and the bylaw is designed to boost city revenue at the expense of private property owners.
Instead of issuing their own tickets, private companies can have their staff train as municipal licensing enforcement officers, who can issue city parking tickets. But the city and not the private company gets the fine.
The first court date will be next month, Sokolov said.
Meanwhile: "The city feels the bylaw is within our authority and it remains in force," spokesperson Brad Ross said.
Last year, the city made $4.8 million in parking fines. Impark alone hands out 50,000 tickets a year. If all were at the lowest level, $39, that's nearly $2 million.
When the city passed its bylaw, several companies threatened to fight it. So far, all most of them have done is ignore it.
Two weeks after the city declared them illegal, Amanda Schwartz got a private parking ticket at York University.
Schwartz, a broke 24-year-old student, still can't decide whether she should pay the ticket she got last Friday.
The city and police say she shouldn't pay because the ticket is illegal. But York University, which parks about 35,000 cars a day, withholds student transcripts until tickets are paid.
The university is trying to decide what to do about the bylaw but, for now, will keep handing out its own tickets to ensure order in its parking lots, spokesperson Nancy White said.
But, says Councillor Howard Moscoe: "If the objective is enforcement, then a City of Toronto ticket does the job.
"If their objective is to squeeze money out of students, they'll continue with their phony ticket ploy," Moscoe (Ward 15, Eglinton-Lawrence) said.
If you get a city ticket, you have to eventually pay it or you can't get your licence plate renewed.
But generally, the only way private tickets can be enforced is by using a collection agency.
Police say they get 500 complaints each month from people over private parking tickets. Strong-arm collection tactics, including phone calls in the middle of the night and threats of notifying credit rating companies if the bill isn't paid, are routine complaints. Others include fraud, being ticketed on public property or when parked with a valid ticket, or excessive fines and lack of appeal process.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net