City to refine parking ticket process, price

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) -- After recently integrating a new computer service for parking tickets, City of St. Joseph officials noticed a few discrepancies and are asking councilmembers to help simplify the process and decrease the price of parking tickets.

A Bill for First Reading at Monday night's City Council meeting looks to ease parking ticket costs, making the process simple for parking enforcement, City staff and drivers.

TBL Systems, Inc. (TBL), is a computer system aimed at making the ticketing process easier for parking enforcement officials and to process the tickets with the Municipal Courts and the Office of State Courts Administrator (OSCA).

Parking staff realized that the transition to the new computer would be an ideal time to repeal the two-tier system of issuing parking tickets.

The two-tier system formerly allowed payments in multiple locations and allowed tickets to be written by different divisions of the City, which resulted in differing payment amounts and fee schedules.

According to the ordinance explanation, staff researched new options, where it was discovered that processing tickets through the TBL system strictly with OSCA would result in not only an OSCA fine of $15.50, but also a $35.50 mandatory court cost, making parking tickets cost a total of $51.

As a result, and to provide some financial relief, parking tickets will now be issued through the TBL system and will include the court date and a $15 fine for parking tickets that do not involve a handicapped spot.

The ticket will also include a "pay by" date within a few days of the court date.

Ticket costs can now be paid in person at City Hall on the first floor, although the City said the location is subject to change in the future, or online.

If the ticket is not paid by the "pay by" date, then it is turned over to the Municipal Court for the defendant/driver to take the ticket to a trial and handle it through the court system, where mandatory court costs through Municipal court and OSCA will not be bound by the $15 fine.