PETOSKEY — The Petoskey City Council recently heard a first reading for an ordinance that would authorize Downtown Parking Services to implement towing as an enforcement measure for chronic parking system abusers.
“The ordinance is really a codification of direction that council gave in 2024 and turning that resolution into an ordinance and putting it in the code clarifying that parking services, at the direction of the city manager, is authorized to have vehicles towed,” said Downtown Manager Amy Tweeten at the council’s April 6 meeting.
Although most people who receive tickets pay them in a timely fashion, agenda materials show others collect thousands of dollars in tickets and late fees.
“(Towing) was one of the mechanisms that we requested to deal with chronic offenders, and we continue to have some,” Tweeten said. “I think, overall, our compliance rate at the end of last year was 96% of people who received tickets do pay them. But we do have some that have started payment plans after different actions taken, whether it was court action or small claims. They start on a payment plan, they fail the payment plan, they continue to get tickets.”
Tweeten provided some examples of citations, including one individual who owes $29,725 and has received 260 notices.
“The staff does try very hard to educate people. They work with people that have fallen behind with their payment plans, make the effort to call them every month and remind them. (They) really go above and beyond and try to make it as personal as possible,” she said. “But at some point people don’t pick up the phone, don’t return calls. And initially when the discussion of towing came up, I think the concern was it would be a bad image for downtown, that it would chase away visitors. But what we know is this is not visitors. This is people that live and work in downtown that benefit from the services that the parking fund actually provides, which is snow removal, streetscape amenities, all the things that are paid for by people paying for parking.”
Tweeten said the towing enforcement is meant to spur behavioral changes and “wake people up sooner than later.”
“This is not a tool we intend to use often but we do feel that it is an important deterrent,” she said.
Several council members voiced concerns about jumping to towing in lieu of using other options first. For example, Mayor John Murphy said the city should go back to court again when needed, as the people who have failed their payment plans are in contempt of what the court has ordered.
Council member Charlie Willmott said he would prefer booting a vehicle before resorting to towing and that there should be a phased approach to enforcement.
“The courts are the first layer, and going back as the mayor suggested, and taking it back to court if you’ve got someone who’s not completing their contract is absolutely a requirement,” he said. “But booting is a very effective tool, and I don’t think it represents any kind of image problem for the city. Towing then becomes the third most extreme layer of enforcement, but there are liability issues to the city as it pertains to towing with potential damage to cars.”
“I won’t vote in favor of towing at this point,” Murphy added. “I feel there’s other means that I feel better about … Maybe in the future, but right now I feel we haven’t tried revisiting the courts for contract violations (and) we haven’t tried booting, and I think those two things should go first.”
Since this was a first reading of the proposed ordinance, no vote was needed. Council did direct Tweeten to take the ordinance back to the Downtown Management Board and rework it for another first reading with a phased approach concept.
“We’re going to have to come back with a different ordinance if that’s the desire of DMB and have the city attorney look at alternate language,” said city manager Shane Horn.
— Contact Jillian Fellows at jfellows@petoskeynews.com.
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Petoskey council discusses proposed ordinance to allow towing enforcement
Reporting by Jillian Fellows, The Petoskey News-Review / The Petoskey News-Review
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