Printer Friendly Format Share


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR- 083-12
March 7, 2012

MAYOR BLOOMBERG SIGNS LEGISLATION CLARIFYING LOCAL LAW ON PARKING SUMMONSES

Remarks by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg at a Public Hearing on Local Law

"The next bill before me is Introductory Number 790-A, sponsored by Council Members Garodnick, Chin, Comrie, Gentile, Koppell, Lander, Recchia, Rose, Williams, James and Halloran.  This legislation makes technical amendments to Local Law 10 of 2012, which created an affirmative defense for parking summonses under certain circumstances.

"Though it's always unpleasant to receive a parking summons, our Administration has tried to make challenging a ticket and, if necessary, paying a fine, as simple as possible.  For more than a year, motorists have been able to submit evidence and contest their parking summonses by mail, over the phone, and online.  Once evidence is submitted, Administrative Law Judges at the Department of Finance have the discretion to sustain or dismiss a summons based on the evidence provided. 

"One example is when a person gets a ticket for failing to display a valid muni-meter receipt on the car dashboard.  If the person submits the receipt as evidence that he or she had purchased time at a muni-meter for the time he or she parked at the spot, then the Administrative Law Judge typically will dismiss the ticket.  Local Law 10 codified this situation by providing that the purchase of time is an affirmative defense to the violation and that a valid muni-meter receipt for the time the summons was issued - or five minutes thereafter - is evidence for that affirmative defense.  Introductory Number 790-A would make technical changes to the Administrative Code section enacted by Local Law 10 to make clear that the defense only applies when a person had time remaining when the ticket was issued or had bought time within five minutes afterward.

"I would like to thank Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, Finance Commissioner David Frankel and the staff in both of their offices for their work on this bill.  I would also like to thank the City Council for approving this legislation."







MEDIA CONTACT:


Stu Loeser/Evelyn Erskine   (212) 788-2958



STAY CONNECTED

TwitterTwitter   TwitterYouTube   FlickrFlickr
More Resources
Watch the video