Sunday, August 17, 2003

By Lillian Thomas, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

It's hard to get some people's attention.

A ticket on the windshield doesn't do it. A summons doesn't do it. Threatening notices and calls from the collection agency don't do it.

The parking tickets pile up, dozens over a periods of months in some cases.

Last year, the winner of the parking scofflaw stakes, James C. Howe of Scott, was issued 56 tickets over an eight-month period. Each of the top 15 scofflaws for 2002 had 30 or more tickets.

As the city attempts to stave off budget disaster, officials have turned their attention to trying to collect more of the $6 million owed to Pittsburgh, mostly from unpaid parking tickets, housing and city court payments and fines, and moving violation traffic tickets.

City Council on Aug. 4 approved a measure proposed by President Gene Ricciardi to send constables to homes of people who owe money to the city. The city already uses a collection agency for outstanding court fees and costs, but Ricciardi said the threat of constables knocking on scofflaws' doors would increase collection rates.

But for parking scofflaws, a very persuasive collection tool already exists.

The boot.

The wheel immobilization device, known as the boot (Denver Boot is the trademark name of a popular version of the device), is basically an oversize metal padlock that is attached to a tire to make the vehicle undriveable.

"When you immobilize their cars, you'd be surprised how people come up with funds, I'm telling you," said Judy MacFarlane, supervisory clerk in city Traffic Court.

The device can be used anywhere in the city, except if the cars are parked in their owners' driveways.

Sgt. John Linn, who supervises the city Tow Pound, said that the boot brings about from $2,500 to $5,000 or more to the pound each day that the two-person team is on the streets of the city.

Cars that have accumulated more than five tickets are eligible for booting. The two-person team -- one, a city police officer, the other a parking enforcement officer for the Parking Authority -- can't keep up with the thousands of drivers who qualify.

At the end of 2002, Traffic Court had $1,735, 280 in outstanding fines for parking tickets. The amount currently outstanding is similar, because some fines are paid while others are assessed, according to officials at Magistrates Court.

Last year, the city police officer and parking enforcement officer responsible for booting locked up 1,100 wheels.

"We could do much more than that if we had personnel," said Linn. "It is a very efficient way to collect traffic fines. We could probably do double what we did last year if we had another boot person."

The path to bootdom works this way.

If an illegal parker gets a $10 ticket and does not pay it within 10 days, he or she is issued a summons. At that point, it turns into a $39 ticket as court costs are added.

"We give them time to send in the money or schedule a hearing," said MacFarlane. If they don't, the ticket is turned over to a collection agency, usually within two months. The agency tacks on a 21 percent charge, raising the ticket cost to $47.19.

When the parker accumulates more than five tickets, his name goes on the scofflaw list that Celeste Kyles carries around each day.

Kyles, the parking enforcement officer who is the parking authority half of the boot team, said she and her partner decide on a neighborhood each day.

They range all over the city, she said. She goes ahead, carrying a gigantic computer printout of the several thousand license plates of vehicles whose owners have accumulated more than five parking tickets. The list has the plates in alphabetical order and sorted by states, so she can scan quickly as she goes car by car down lines of parked vehicles.

"I'm going ahead of the boot man," she said. "When I find someone on the list, I call him, then I call Traffic Court." They verify that she's got the right vehicle and that the fines are still outstanding. "Then I write it up." The bootman puts on the boot, along with a large pink notice on the windshield warning the driver not to try to move the car.

"They have to come down here to pay first," said Linn of the city Tow Pound.

If they pay within 72 hours, the bootman will go back and remove the device. If not, the vehicle gets towed to the pound.

Then the price of retrieval starts adding up.

The boot costs $150; the tow fee is $110, and then the scofflaw has to pay off all the outstanding fines -- in cash or on a Visa or Mastercard.

"There are occasions when you least expect it and need your car the most and you come and find the boot on it," said Linn. "We hear the litany of stories about how they never got the citations, or we get the parents of kids in college who got the tickets."

The tow pound people listen to the stories then, "we make them pay."

The person does have the right to schedule a hearing in Traffic Court, where a judge will listen to pleas for leniency and will sometimes reduce the fees.

But it takes a few days to get a hearing, and the Tow Pound charges a $9 daily storage fee for the first three days, $18 a day thereafter. Cars still there after a couple of months may be auctioned off or sent to the salver, Linn said.

There is nothing comparable for other courts, said William T. Simmons, chief administrator for the city Magistrates Courts, which comprise City Court, Housing Court and Traffic Court.

"If we could put a boot on the front door, we would do it," he said. "We're always looking for ways to improve collection efforts."

At the end of last year, City Court had $397,747 in fines, costs and related items; Housing Court had $118,145.50, and Traffic Court had $1,804, 998.00 in outstanding fines for moving violations.

The City Court delinquent payments are typically fines levied in cases involving charges such as retail theft, disorderly conduct, being in parks after hours.

Those, too, are turned over to a collection agency if not paid within three or four months. Warrants can be issued, but that is not now done systematically.

Simmons expects a new system being put into place to dramatically increase City Court collections. "It's an automatic 'tickler' system that will trigger warrants," he said. Before, employees were doing it manually, sitting at a file cabinet going through papers, he said. Now those delinquent on fines will be quickly identified.

He said the use of constables approved by council could increase repayment.

"From a collection standpoint sure, it can only help," he said. "Any efforts we can undertake on our collection effort can only help."

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