Man’s Plan To Patrol Parking Hits Roadblock Union Opposes Proposal To Form Firm To Ticket Lawbreakers In Disability Spots

Stuart Evey thought he had an offer Spo kane city officials couldn’t refuse.

The former vice president of Getty Oil Co. and founder of ESPN proposed forming a small company that would issue tickets to people parked illegally in disability spots.

It’s a job that gets little attention from police and parking enforcement officers busy fighting crime and patrolling for expired meters.

Evey’s plan guaranteed the city at least what was earned by the tickets last year - plus 25 percent of the company’s revenues above that. A violation comes with a hefty $175 fine.

“I thought it would be hard for them to reject it,” the Spokane businessman said. “It was just too good an idea.”

Rejection is exactly what he and his business partner are getting.

While city officials originally greeted the idea with enthusiasm, their excitement is waning. Union and civil service representatives vow to fight any attempts to privatize jobs they say should be done by city employees.

“I will fight privatization with every breath that I have,” said Randy Withrow, union representative for parking enforcement officers. “If there’s a desire to spend more time … citing (parking violators), then let’s hire people to do it.”

“The way to do things cheaper and best is through a competitive selection process,” said Harvey Harden, civil service director. He added the city’s charter requires that all jobs not specifically exempt must be filled competitively.

Harden’s comments were backed up last week by Mike Piccolo, an assistant city attorney, who said in a written memo that Evey’s idea “has several difficult legal hurdles to overcome.”

City leaders say the response is typical but frustrating. Creative ways to deliver city services are crushed by an inflexible charter, collective bargaining agreements and civil service rules, they say.

“I think it certainly shows that when someone comes up with an idea that might benefit everyone, including the city and the taxpayers, because of the inflexibility of the rules, we can’t seem to get there from here,” said Mayor Jack Geraghty.

“The current system is so overly protective that the taxpayers end up on the short end of the stick,” said Councilman Orville Barnes, adding that Evey’s proposal was a “win-win” idea.

“It’s not being done now, at least not to any degree … and we would end up with more revenue than we’re getting now,” Barnes said.

Evey came up with the idea last year after running errands with his elderly mother, who has a disability permit.

“Every time we’d try to find a parking spot, someone was parked there without a permit,” he said.

He mentioned his idea to Geraghty, who suggested he talk to then-City Manager Roger Crum. The idea languished until Evey mentioned it to current City Manager Bill Pupo.

In late April, Evey and his partner, Neil Bennett, presented their proposal to the City Council Public Works Committee.

The businessmen planned to hire people who were disabled, retired or unemployed to write the tickets. They’d be given a car or mileage costs, and they’d be paid about $25 a day plus a percentage from each ticket issued.

Each employee also would be given a camera to photograph the license plate and the violation.

Committee members were shown photographs of nine violations Evey and Bennett said they’d witnessed at a downtown business during a 19-minute period.

“At $175 each … that’s a lot of money,” Evey said.

Members of the Public Works Committee, including Geraghty and Barnes, liked the proposal. But it met resistance from the unions, civil service and transportation departments.

Withrow and Police Guild President Russ Cox say they need to protect their employees. If the city starts contracting out for any of the work city employees should be doing, it sets a bad precedent - even when that work currently isn’t being done on a regular basis, they said.

“I’m opposed to taking work away from city employees,” Withrow said. “If it’s not being done, that’s the city manager’s fault. It’s the way they deploy their manpower.”

“If you let the little things go, it turns into big problems later,” said Cox, who admitted that police officers rarely write tickets to people who park illegally in disability spots.

Parking enforcement officers work Monday through Saturday, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Police officers enforce parking regulations at other times.

It’s not that the law is never enforced. Transportation Director Bruce Steele estimates the traffic enforcement office has averaged 10 disability parking tickets a day since Jan. 1.

At that rate, the city should be making about $500,000 a year off violators, but Municipal Court doesn’t track the money collected from disability parking infractions.

Steele would like the council to consider hiring another employee just to issue disability violations.

“It would definitely more than pay for itself,” said Steele, who estimated one additional employee whose time is devoted to writing those citations could net the city about $385,000 a year.

Evey and Bennett find it astonishing that their idea is prompting the city to consider hiring more employees.

“Suddenly, they think they can do it and do it better,” Bennett said.

Neither man is willing to give up on the proposal. Assistant City Attorney Piccolo and other city officials have urged them to sit down with union officials.

“There’s got to be some compromise, something we can work out,” Evey said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo