City relunctantly to hand over $900,000 in fines

Thursday, Oct. 3, 2002 | 9:55 a.m.

The Las Vegas City Council reluctantly agreed Wednesday to pay nearly $1 million to the state of Nevada in overpaid city parking fines after the state Supreme Court said it had to.

"If I had the authority to be disobedient I wouldn't pay," Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said. "I believe the court erred on this one."

Nevertheless, Goodman -- saying he will save his act for civil disobedience for when the federal government ships nuclear waste through Las Vegas to the proposed dump at Yucca Mountain -- voted with five other council members to pay the state $985,347.

Councilman Lawrence Weekly was absent from that vote, and Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald abstained because her husband was the deputy attorney general who prevailed in the lengthy legal battle against the city over the issue.

"It sticks in my craw," Councilman Michael McDonald said, suggesting that the city bill the state for the hours the city parking enforcement employees worked writing out the parking tickets. He was informed by the city attorney's office that could not be done.

The money will come from the Parking Enterprise Fund.

The legal battle stemmed from the city's one-time policy that allowed parking violators to pay $10 instead of the usual $20 if they did so within 10 days. However, many motorists unwittingly paid the full amount, which the city kept.

In June the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that the city had to turn the extra money over to the Nevada Unclaimed Property Division, which oversees unclaimed money or abandoned property and tries to find its rightful owner.

The city changed its ordinance in 2000. A parking fine now is $20 whether it is paid early or on time.

In another action involving parking meters, the City Council voted as part of its consent agenda -- items deemed to be routine and thus approved by a single vote without public comment -- a resolution to raise the top price for metered parking by 50 percent.

With that vote the maximum city parking meter fee climbs from $1 an hour to $1.50 per hour.

The city plans to use the higher rate in its current and future parking garages. Parking at meters on the street will remain at $1 per hour for now.