Overkill?

Boston College Campus Police
Parking and Traffic Safety
ATTN: Appeals Board
Chestnut Hill, MA
02467-3828

June 23, 2005

To Whom It May Concern:

I am a rising second-year law student at Boston College writing to appeal two parking tickets and would appreciate your assistance in this matter.

On April 20, 2005, I wrote a check to Boston College (Check No. 216) in the amount of $50.00 for Citation No. 322952, a parking ticket I acquired when I stopped in at the International House for a brief meeting with Dr. St. Onge prior to Easter break and, unfamiliar with the parking rules for that facility, parked illegally and was ticketed accordingly. According to my bank’s records, that check cleared; so I was surprised to find I owed $75.00 in parking tickets according to my May account statement. Since I only received one parking ticket over the course of the year, I assumed that somehow my payment had not been recorded and that the $25.00 was a late fee and determined to check into the matter after finals.

However, when I called your offices this morning to rectify this situation, I was extremely surprised to learn that this amount actually represented two other parking tickets that I never received, as follows: Citation No. 312209, issued on 12/15/04; and Citation No. 309030, issued on 9/23/04. According to the officer with whom I spoke, one of these tickets was for parking in the faculty lots on the Newton campus, and the other was for parking in an Environmental Law Society “Carpool Only” spot without a permit to do so.

I would greatly appreciate the Board’s careful consideration of my appeal for the following reasons: first, I never received notice of these tickets in any form, on my car or elsewhere. Having received one glaringly orange ticket, I know that BC’s tickets are impossible to miss: I would have spotted them, had they been placed on my car. Had I legitimately received these tickets and been in the wrong, I would gladly have paid the fine. However, my first notice of them was this morning when I called to make sure my check for the parking fine I did legitimately owe had been entered. Second, I do not make a habit of parking where I do not belong. The only times I parked in faculty spots were during non-business hours (weekends or after 6 p.m.), which I was instructed was perfectly fine. Furthermore, regardless of whether I was misinformed, I believe it is inherently unfair to require students, faculty, or visitors to pay fines for tickets they never received, let alone to do so as many as five or eight months after the fact! With regards to parking in the “Carpool Only” spot, I own a carpool permit issued by the Environmental Law Society and used it on a regular basis in the fall when I carpooled with Rebekah Mandell, BCLS 2007. I faithfully displayed the permit, never used it when I was driving alone, and ceased to use it when we stopped carpooling together in the spring because I did not want to abuse the privilege.

I apologize for the length of this appeal but am grateful for your assistance. I recognize that, in the grand scheme of things, parking tickets are among life’s less devastating petty disasters; but it also does not suit me to pay for what I did not do, particularly when I do try to be conscientious of the rules. I also have a suggestion: in the future, I recommend including the citation numbers for parking tickets on student account statements so that students can quickly verify their own records. Had I known the gravity of the situation in May, I would have addressed the matter more promptly and in person. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Jessica L. Curtis
BCLS ‘07