If the full Common Council votes in support of the plan, people would have more time to pay parking tickets before incurring a penalty.
Today, the Council's Public Safety and Health Committee endorsed Common Council File #181630, which is the official name of an proposed ordinance sponsored by Ald. Cavalier Johnson with the support of Alds. Milele A. Coggs, Nikiya Dodd, José G. Peréz and Chantia Lewis.
The ordinance would extend the current 10-day grace period for paying parking citations to 14 days. which would extend the grace period for paying a parking citation from the current 10 days to 14 days.
"Under our current laws, failure to pay a parking citation within 10 days results in a late-payment penalty," said Ald. Johnson in a statement.
"Residents living paycheck to paycheck may be unable to pay the citation in full, which could trigger a vicious cycle of missed payment deadlines and increasing late-payment penalties. Such penalties can push the cost of the citation beyond a person’s ability to pay."
Research has shown that other Midwestern cities have longer grace periods -- including 14 days in Cincinnati, 15 in Cleveland, 21 in Chicago and St. Paul and 30 days in St. Louis.
According to Johnson's statement today, an extended grace period not only isn't expected to hinder penalty collections, but may even mean more are paid before they go to collection agencies as delinquent.
The plan heads to the full Council on Tuesday, Feb. 26 at 9 a.m.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
