City seeks to increase parking tickets

WAUPACA – Parking violations in the City of Waupaca may soon see an increase to parking violation fines as the city council looks into updating fine pricing.
Pete Kraeger, the chief of police for the City of Waupaca, said the parking violation fees have not been adjusted since 2016 at the Oct. 21 city council meeting.
When they were adjusted in 2016, they added $3 to the parking violation.
Currently the parking penalties are $5 for exceeding the two hour limit on spots in the downtown area, and $15 for the overnight parking violations.
The increase would add an additional $5 to the violations, making the overtime parking citation to be $10 and overnight parking would increase to $20.

Kraeger said at the meeting that he pulled data from Clintonville, Weyauwega, New London, Menasha, Appleton and Green Bay.
The average parking violations cost hovers around $20; however, Kraeger said only using data from within the county the average parking violation comes in at $25.
The highest fine Kraeger found is a total of $35, which is in Weyauwega and accounts for any and all parking violations.
Kraeger said by increasing the violations up $5 it will help to be at or closer to the comparable totals in the surrounding area.
Kraeger said that enforcement of the two-hour parking limit is enforced daily with many repeat parking violation offenders.
“The goal of a citation or ticket is to change the behavior and if we’re continuing to issue the same person for the same violation that change isn’t happening,” he said .
Essentially people are paying to park due to the fine being only $5, Kraeger said.
Mayor Brian Smith agreed that there are repeat offenders that are chronically abusing the two-hour parking limit.
City council alderperson, Henry Veleker, said the increase will open the council up for criticism and noted there is a lot of cost-free parking in the downtown area, which mitigates many of the complaints.
Veleker agreed that falling in line with surrounding communities is also an important aspect of increasing the fines.
There was not a vote on the potential fine increase, as this was the first reading of the proposed increase, the measure needs to be read in twice, at which time they will vote on the increase.
The next Waupaca city council meeting is Nov. 4 at 6 p.m. at the Council Chambers in City Hall, 111 South Main St.