Mayor and Council On Pay And Parking Fines

Since I was at part of the >Mayor and Council meeting last night, May 18, 2009, I thought I’d pass along a couple of other decisions.

Pay Raises

Every two years prior to an election, the Compensation Commission is required to meet to discuss any increase to the Mayor and Council’s monetary compensation. The Mayor and Council voted on the recommendations. Although they did not give themselves raises for the next Fiscal Year 2010, they did approve raises for the following Fiscal Years 2011 and 2012. The vote was 4 to 1 with Councilmember Gajewski opposed.

This decision partially rejected and partially confirmed the Compensation Commission’s recommendation for increases in the annual compensation for the Mayor and Councilmembers. The compensation would only be increased if there is a positive change in the Washington – Baltimore metropolitan area CPI-U for the twelve months preceding the previous November. Councilmember Britton clarified the decision could be re-evaluated in the future.

Town Center Parking Garage Fines

The Mayor and Council amend Section 23-22 entitled “Notice of violation; payment of penalty; failure to pay penalty; issuance of summons” to reduce the fines for expired parking meters/stalls located in City-owned parking garages in the Town Center with a vote of 3 to 2. Mayor Hoffmann and Councilmembers Robbins & Britton were in favor. Councilmembers Gajewski and Marcuccio were opposed. The fine will be lowered from $40 to $12 per ticket. About six tickets are issued per day.

Councilmember Gajewski pointed out that it will cost more to issue the tickets than what the City will get in fines and $40 is equitable to the rest of the County. Councilmember Marcuccio agreed that the fine is $40 elsewhere and she could not agree to lowering it in Town Center. The stated goal for the change is to provide “a customer-friendly retail and residential environment in the Town Center”.

Personally, when I was 15 minutes late returning to the car after lunch with a friend, we had a ticket. We all lose track of time, but you can’t in Town Center. Now I always overpay an hour to avoid this situation.

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