title
TRAFFIC AND MOTOR VEHICLE OVERTIME METERED PARKING (B)
Ordinance No. 110952
An ordinance of the City of Gainesville, Florida, amending Chapter 26 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Gainesville relating to traffic and motor vehicles; amending Sec. 26-76 by providing a further exception for the parking of governmental vehicles; providing directions to the codifier; providing a severability clause; providing a repealing clause; and providing an immediate effective date.
recommendation
The City Commission adopt the proposed ordinance.
explanation
Section 26-76 pertaining to the exception for governmental vehicles in the parking codes exempts government vehicles that either have government license plates or have government markings on the vehicles. By definition, this exception does not apply to unmarked government vehicles. For example, covert (aka undercover) law enforcement vehicles driven by federal, state and local law enforcement officers or other general government employees are not exempted from overtime parking at meters, when on government business. This leads to inequitable results for those driving unmarked vehicles. For example, if an FBI agent attends a hearing at the Federal Courthouse while under subpoena, and parks an unmarked government vehicle in a metered parking spot and pays for the maximum of 2 hours parking and ends up testifying for three hours, the agent has violated the City of Gainesville parking ordinance. Alternatively, a patrol officer who parks a marked vehicle, in the same situation, would qualify for the exception and not be in violation of the city ordinance. There is no exception for unmarked government vehicles, only marked government vehicles.
In practice, the officers in covert vehicles who receive a parking citation can now request a hearing. On occasion the hearing officer may dismiss the ticket at the hearing. When this happens, the City has to pay the non-prevailing party fee, which is now $40.00 per case. Not only is the City out the non-prevailing party fee, but the City's parking officers have to attend the hearing. Under the proposed amendment, if the driver of an unmarked government vehicle, who otherwise meets the criteria of the exception, gets a citation because a vehicle is an unmarked government vehicle, the driver would file an Affidavit of Explanation and the citation could lawfully be dismissed.
The proposed amendment is not intended to excuse the initial payment of the parking meter fees, nor is it to be used as a substitute for normal government employee parking.
At its October 18, 2012 meeting, the City Commission received the recommendation of the Recreation, Cultural Affairs, and Public Works Committee and authorized the City Attorney to draft and the City Clerk to advertise this ordinance.
This ordinance requires two readings. This ordinance shall become effective immediately upon final adoption.