Politics & Government

Parking Citations Up

Twenty percent increase over past year. So what's going on?

 

The city of Petaluma handed out more parking tickets last year than any other year since 2008.

Revenues from parking citations totaled nearly $335,000 last fiscal year, an increase of 20 percent from the year before, according to the city’s finance department. 

Find out what's happening in Petalumawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Revenues from parking citations go into the city's general fund and help pay for salaries and benefits.

It's not that there's new focus on apprehending cars parked for longer than two hours, said police spokesman Lt. Tim Lyons. There's just more help after the city hired a new part-time parking enforcement officer last August.

Find out what's happening in Petalumawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

All in all, there are 2.5 full-time equivalent employees at the police department devoted to parking enforcement in Petaluma. 

The city also recently started cracking down on repeat offenders who have outstanding fines, towing cars that have five or more unpaid parking citations.

Have you been fined for parking in downtown Petaluma? 


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