I read the article "Beware Parking Ticket Racket" from the September 25th issue. I decided to do some research of my own because I did not believe everything the gentlemen had stated. From the information and facts I had found it seems that he is just a pissed off person with a valid ticket and does not want to pay a measly $25. I went to the "permit only lot" to see the signs. The signs are bigger than what was stated in the article and the signs clearly read "Parking by Permit Only Violators Will Be Ticketed." Yes, this is a private lot and the owners had decided to contract Municipal Parking Services to monitor their lot. MPS has several agents watching lots around Bend.
People have been taking advantage of parking in the lot behind Midtown for several years. MPS put four signs on the lot requested by the owner. I had talked with one of the agents from MPS and he stated that he told this gentleman that he could call the owner of the lot to try to have the ticket voided. If the owner did not void the ticket then MPS could not do anything about it. The agent at MPS never said "there was nothing I could do about it". The gentleman was not telling the whole truth about what had been said. The owners of the private lots have sole jurisdiction on voiding the tickets. MPS is not responsible in any way for voiding tickets.
As for the said scam, there is no scam. This gentleman apparently did not do his research properly.
These are the facts:
MPS is a private lot parking service thus far. Diamond Parking does private and city lots.
MPS and Diamond Parking use a collection agency to pursue the people who do not pay their tickets. This is how they locate the people from their license plate numbers.
Yes, the owner of the unimproved lot can sell parking permits to anyone they see fit. It's a private lot and whether or not it is unimproved they have every right to sell parking permits. It is not against any ORS or city violations.
The signs at the lot behind Midtown clearly read "PARKING BY PERMIT ONLY VIOLATORS WILL BE TICKETED." Apparently the gentleman did not finish reading the sign.
As for the phone number to purchase a permit there was a typing error and about 20 of them were missing the last number and were accidentally handed out.
MPS and Diamond Parking have a $25 fee and after 15 days it goes up to $50. So, MPS is not doing anything different than Diamond Parking with private lots.
MPS is a legally operated parking agency. They have both state and city licensing for their company.
If people do not pay the ticket by 60 days they will be turned over to collections.
The signs are 12" X 18" so anyone could see them just fine.
As for the address MPS does have a PO Box in Bend. They did have a PO Box in Redmond because they were trying to contract in that city also.
There is nothing illegal going on with Municipal Parking Service or the companies that have contracted with them to issue tickets. I think it is funny how certain people decide to ignore clearly written and posted signs then get a valid citation and have to attack others to try to make themselves look better.
It's unfortunate if people listened to this gentleman about not paying their tickets because their fine will go up to $50 and/or to collections. He caused a lot of people a lot of extra money and may affect their credit - all from not doing proper research.
Good Samaritan
