Parking privileges could be in jeopardy
By Becky Brandenburg
Staff Reporter

Clara Brown said she has heard every excuse in the book.

“‘I couldn’t have been parked there for more than three minutes’, ‘but the officer told me I could park there’ ... I’ve heard it all,” said Brown, a police department administrative assistant.

Brown said that although the office doesn’t record the number of tickets issued or appealed, students should contest if there is a legitimate discrepancy. A successful appeal can depend on the circumstances and explanation, she said.

The TCU Police Web site said people with three parking citations will receive a letter and/or e-mail stating that their parking privileges are in jeopardy. Parking privileges are immediately suspended once six citations are accumulated.

Cheryl Wilson, controller for the financial services department, said billing for November logged $138,375 in parking fines to student accounts for the fall semester.

Wilson said parking fine income is added to the general fund.

“Like income from tuition, dormitory payments and dining fees, parking fees pay for things like utilities, insurance, maintenance and salaries,” Wilson said.

Michael Waldo, a freshman premajor, said he has gotten three tickets this semester. Waldo said he appealed two tickets, one for parking in a fire lane and another for parking in the faculty lot on a football game weekend when cars had to be moved from the freshman lots.

According to the TCU police Web site, parking violations are enforced 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Violators may be cited and subject to booting or towing at the owner’s expense.

“After my first two appeals were shot down, I chose not to appeal the third ticket,” Waldo said.

He said his parents agreed that they would pay the tuition, and he’d pay any fines.

“I’m not happy about (paying the parking fines),” Waldo said. “The parking situation is the only problem I’m having at TCU. But so are a lot of students.”

TCU and Fort Worth charge a $100 fine for parking in a fire lane, handicap space or tow-away zone.

Parking fine income for Fort Worth is estimated and accounted for in the city’s final budget. In an August 2003 letter to the mayor and city council, City Manager Gary W. Jackson estimated all fines and forfeitures for fiscal year 2002-03 would come to a little more than $14 million toward the total estimated general fund of $385,267,203.

City fine totals for the TCU area were not made available to the Skiff by press time. Fort Worth Police Department liason officer to TCU Jamie Johnson, the office of Municipal Courts and the Traffic Division office did not return calls requesting parking ticket numbers and fine totals.