With Council approval, late fees waived for parking tickets starting Jan. 20

With approval from Fort Wayne City Council, the City Clerk’s office will offer a parking ticket amnesty program Jan. 20 to Jan. 30. Most parking tickets, including those 10 years old or more, can be paid for the original fine with late fees waived.

If approved by city council, you will only have 9 days to pay up.

To waive the late fee, tickets must be paid in person in the Clerk’s office on the first floor of the City-County Building, by credit card over the phone at 427-1208 or by mail using a money order or credit card with a postmark between Jan. 20 and Jan. 30. Tickets can be paid with cash, credit card or money orders in person. Personal checks will not be accepted for the amnesty program.

The late fees cannot be waived if people use the Web site to pay a late ticket.

Amazing. The city IT department apparently cannot figure out how to make it work online.

The parking amnesty resolution goes to City Council for its first reading at tonight’s Council meeting following its introduction last month.

“Fort Wayne’s parking amnesty program shows cooperation between City Council, the Clerk’s office and Mayor Henry for the benefit of residents while creating an unexpected revenue stream,” Councilman and outgoing Council President Tom Didier said. “I am pleased we are able to offer this program as way to remove some old tickets from the Clerk’s system and allow people to clear away any parking fines without late fees.”

This is the first time in 25 years that such a program would be offered in Fort Wayne. The City doesn’t know how much additional revenue this program will bring in since the City hasn’t offered a parking amnesty, however Kennedy and her staff researched parking amnesty programs in other cities.

“This program is a win-win for Fort Wayne residents and visitors as well as City government,” said Mayor Tom Henry. “Let me give my thanks to Sandy and her staff for their research and commitment to this one-time program and Council members’ support of the plan. I look forward to this resolution coming to my office for signature. I’ll gladly sign it when it comes to my desk.”

Fines that have been filed in court are not eligible for this program, however tickets that have resulted in vehicle registration suspension are.

The City’s Clerk office is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

I’ve only had two tickets downtown, and paid them both online while they were still only $5.00. It will be interesting to a). see how much revenue is generated, and b). where that money is spent.

Great idea.

AWB

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