Letter: Everett parking police need some nuance

Published 1:30 am Monday, October 10, 2016

Whew … It’s a good thing I waited before attempting to write this. I live in north Everett and have my elderly mother living with me. I live in an area that is very close to our community college and now our the new WSU building being built. Last week, I parked at the end of my driveway, because there’s no curb, and helped my mom out of my vehicle and into my house. After I came back out, I went to move my vehicle and noticed a piece of paper on my windshield. Parking enforcement was doing its job. A $20 ticket was issued to my vehicle for blocking a driveway. It was my driveway. I thought, no problem, I’d just go down to the city municipal court, where you pay your tickets, and show them my driver’s license with my address, and they would understand. Wrong. I told the the clerk that I’m not here to shoot the messenger after she informed me that the only appeal is a court date. A ticket for blocking my own driveway. I could schedule a court date and waste, not only the city’s time, but my time as well for $20. My mind had played the scenarios and thought better to pay the fine and appeal my frustration.

I thought that parking enforcement, after recording the offending license number, would do their due diligence by checking that license number to see if it corresponded to that address. Thinking that FedEx and UPS park at the end of every driveway when delivering their packages. Should they be ticketed? It would be so nice, that in this litigious society, that employees could be in trusted with the common sense to decide the right thing to do… Immediately.

Marc Owenby

Everett