Oakland Parking Problem: Another One for Rebecca Kaplan

Zennie, a blogger for the San Francisco Chronicle, prints a letter from Oakland resident Terese Tatum, who is fighting “erroneous ticket.” The incident took place on April 10, 2010, when Terese Tatum parked in a space with an inactive meter – the meter’s head had been removed and a Pay-to-Park machine had a message that read “Coming Soon.” When Tatum saw her ticket, she pointed out the mistake to the parking enforcement officer who apologized and told her that the citation would be cleared. (After taking the ticket from her, he then drove off “leaving 10 tickets on the cars in front and behind her that were also written in error.”) Having never received a notice of payment or late payment, Tatum assumed the ticket had been correctly dismissed until she received a bill for it – in the amount of $127. After spending “hours on the phone” and leaving” a number of voicemails,” Tatum has received no response from the City of Oakland. Blogger goes onto challenge “At-Large Councilmember and would-be mayoral candidate Rebecca Kaplan” for her support of raising “revenue in this way.”