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Parking and Traffic Appeals Panel
The panel started this year with a backlog of appeals from the previous
year. Once that was cleared, we began doing current business. The
first step was the creation of a mailing list to provide a forum for
panel members to discuss some of the appeals without the need of a
meeting. We then broke the panel into subpanels of seven to eight
members in order to expedite the appeals process. Furthermore, a private
Web site was created in order to provide members with a faster means
of examining the appeals and submitting their feedback. That process
has proven very efficient. Once an appeal is received from parking
and traffic, the file is uploaded to the Web for panel members to
read. Panelists then submit their feedback via a Web form. On the
other hand, whenever a personal appeal is requested, the panel schedules
a meeting with the appellants. We have averaged three personal appeals
every other month.
Through the end of May 2002, the panel had reviewed 216 appeals, including
several personal appearances. We are still working in the summer.
The number of appeals has increased tremendously. The problems addressed
by the previous panel chairs remain. Several of the cases are basically
a disagreement between the ticketing officer and the appellant. Even
when the officers write notes in the tickets, those notes are not
always accurate. We have had a few cases of clear errors by the ticketing
officers.
The panel feels that more training is needed for the ticketing officers.
We also feel that some policies should be developed in conjunction
with the Parking and Traffic Policy Committee as to how these appeals
can be properly addressed. A system of identifying precisely what
spot a vehicle was occupying also seems to be needed. It might not
be financially feasible to number every parking spot on campus, but
many times a ticketing officer says a car is parked in a given spot,
whereas the appellant says the vehicle was in another location. The
confusion and addition of new parking signs with no clear warning
about those changes has tremendously contributed to the increase in
the number of tickets. Large signs at each campus entrance should
be placed alerting people that there is no free parking on campus.
As a final note, I personally would like to see more participation
from panel members. A few people requested to be removed from the
panel right at the start because they stated they had not volunteered
for the job.
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This document was posted on the Faculty Council Web site, www.utexas.edu/faculty/council/
on July 29, 2002. Paper copies are available on request from the Office
of the General Faculty, FAC 22, F9500.
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