From: neves@pilsner.cs.colorado.edu (NEVES RICHARD K)
Subject: Letter to Parking Services
Organization: Universtiy of Coloardo, Boulder
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 02:48:11 GMT

The following is a letter I just sent off to Parking Services.  In the letter
I complain about the "wait for the meter to expire" policy and an erroneous
citation.

Any response I get from Parking Services will be posted.

I'm curious about people's opinions on the "wait for the meter to expire" 
policy.  Am I out of line?

Thanx for your feedback,
Rich

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July 29, 1992


Parking Services
University of Colorado
1050 Regent Drive
Boulder, CO. 80309



Parking Services,

I am writing this letter to express my concern about the quality of
service your parking monitors are providing.  I recognize that the
parking monitors serve an important role in enforcing the rules and
regulations governing parking.  Unfortunatley, I believe they carry
out this responsibility with a little too much zest.

In the hopes of improving communication between Parking Services and
the people who park at the University, I will post this letter (and
your response) to the appropriate groups on the network news.  If
you're unfamiliar with this media, it is a computer bulletin board
that is subscribed to by a healthy percentage of the students and
faculty here at the University.  A written response would be greatly
appreciated.

My wife works for the University.  She rides her bike on most
occasions, but occasionally drives and parks at a meter for a few
minutes.  In two instances, she has come back to the car to see a
parking monitor standing by her *unexpired* meter, waiting for it to
expire.  Before she can get to the car door, the meter expries and the
parking monitor begins writing the ticket.  The window of time for the
above to take place is literally seconds.

My wife and I firmly believe in paying the consequences for letting a
meter expire.  I personally respect the parking monitor in wanting to
do his job *so well*, but I strongly disagree with this approach.  The
method smells like entrapment and serves little purpose in regulating
the use of the University's precious parking resources.  The first
time this happened to my wife, she attempted to talk to the parking
monitor.  She explained that she had watched the parking monitor wait
for her meter to expire as she was coming to the car.  The parking
montior proceeded to chastise my wife quite severely.  My wife didn't
try communication with the parking monitor the second time this
happened.

In both cases we didn't formally complain.  After today's incident,
however, a letter seems appropriate.  Today I went to your officies on
Regent to pick up a parking permit.  I parked in the numbered lot next
to your office building and paid for 20 minutes starting at 3:59.
Fortunately, the machine gives you a receipt for the time you pay for.
When I came back to the car at 4:07, I found a citation claiming that
I was 17 minutes over my allotted time.  The receipt in my hand said I
had until 4:19.  I checked my parking spot number and the one on the
receipt.  Both numbers matched.  I returned to the office and gave the
woman the citation and the receipt.  She stapled my receipt to the
ticket and said she would take care of it.

Ironically, before I found the citation on my car, I spent about 5
minutes talking to a woman in your office about the encounters my wife
had.  She was professional courteous (very refreshing after
experiences my wife had).

I would like you to justify the *wait for the meter to expire* policy.
I'd also like to know if your parking monitors work on any type of
quota system.  In the specific case of the citation issued for the
numbered lot, I'd like to know why it happened.  Can I rest assured
that I can park and pay without getting an erroneous citation?

I realize that your parking monitors receive a lot of abuse from angry
people who deserve their citations.  This is no excuse for your
monitors to be over-zealous and rude in executing their duties with
everyone.


Sincerely,


Richard Neves
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