Councilor and finance committee member Andrew Fitch brought forward a communication to the body identifying which section of city law was in need of an update.
“We had a couple of meetings in the finance committee about this specifically. We also had a meeting with our city solicitor, who informed us that we are out of compliance right now. And we're out of compliance because we as a city adopted in 1981 Chapter 90, Section 20A, which states that the maximum fine for motor vehicle and traffic fines is $25. We're out of compliance because several of our fines are higher than that,” said Fitch. “This is not a significant infraction. However, we are out of compliance. So, in order to move us back into compliance, we should strike that, and we should adopt 20A½, which states that the maximum fine would be $50. That would bring us into compliance.”
“Surprisingly, there's only two communities in the state that do allow parking fines over $50. I would have assumed there would have been more, especially with the bigger cities, but Boston and Cambridge are the only two cities right now. They got special approval from the legislation to be able to get parking fines over $50," said councilor and finance committee chair Keith Bona. “If it does get referred to another meeting, it would need to come back and we would probably want to approve it right before – or another committee – we would need to approve it before we can take the next step into approving the other fees and fines.”
Fitch’s communication would rescind the approval of the relevant standing Massachusetts General Law and update it.
“Just for clarification, this particular section of MGL only relates to parking fines, and does not include handicap parking, which is separate. So, handicap parking is $300 fine. If you park in a handicapped spot, this does not affect that, that's covered in a different section of MGL. But any other parking fine, this would be connected to, and it would allow us to fine up to $50 for those violations. Currently, based on the current MGL, it is only $25 that we are supposed to be fining people. So, it just allows us to fine, have a higher fine for parking violations," said council Vice President and finance committee member Ashley Shade. “It was recommended by the solicitor, as they had stated, in a finance committee meeting that we should adopt this particular section of MGL to both, one, be in compliance with our current fees that are already on the books, and two, make sure we have this in place before we adopt and change new ones that would be for more than $25.”
The nine-member body unanimously approved the move, and is expected to again take up the issue of the city fines at its April 23rd meeting.
