Justice delayed

When I walked in the door after work today, Lori greeted me with the news that I had a piece of mail waiting for me from Multnomah County Circuit Court. I haven't been nailed with a parking violation in months, but I had a suspicion of what was in the envelope.

Sure enough, there it was: a $25 check refunding part of my bail for a ticket issued -- can you believe this? -- on April 18 of last year. Ten and a half months ago? Are you kidding me?

Last summer, I wrote a blog post, "Vindication!" in which I happily noted that the court had given me a $24 refund for a questionable parking citation issued in October 2009. When that check arrived, I initially thought it was a partial refund for the April 18 ticket -- a $45 whopper that greeted us at the end of an otherwise splendid Sunday morning walk in the Southwest Portland hills.

I hadn't purchased time on the meter because I mistakenly believed that paid parking hours at the city park where we'd left our car didn't take effect until after Memorial Day. Wrong!

Nevertheless, because I felt I'd explained myself so well in a letter of appeal that I sent to the court in May, I confidently wrote that I expected to receive a full or partial refund for the second citation by Christmas. Wrong!

I was off by two months. My $25 refund check was dated 2/25/11. How's that for symmetry? Turns out I paid a $20 penalty -- instead of the original $45. And it took nearly a year for the creaky machinery of the courts to deliver only a partial refund.

I could grouse about this a little more but at this point I suppose the better thing to do is to consider this an unexpected windfall. My own little stimulus. Yeah!

You CAN fight city hall

Chalk one up for the little guy. That would be me.

One day last week, I found myself needing to buy about 90 minutes of time on one of our SmartPark meters downtown. Don't know how common they are around the country by now, but you have to run your credit or debit card through the machine at the rate of $1.60 per hour -- unless you're a small bank and carry a ton of quarters. I don't.

Anyway, the machine took my money but didn't dispense a receipt, which meant I had to cross the street and use another machine, which worked just fine and gave me a receipt to put on my window. A few days later, I'm looking at my checking account online and discover I've been debited twice instead of just once. Well...

I went to the credit union yesterday and pointed out the duplicate charges. The teller, after consulting with a supervisor, said I needed to take up the issue with the city. Sigh.

Anticipating the worst, I went to the Portland Building (above) and rode the elevator to the 8th floor offices of the Bureau of Transportation. I handed over a copy of the bank statement and receipts from that day's parking, then waited patiently while three other people who arrived behind me had their questions answered. Finally, I was called to the counter.

Whaddya know? The city worker who heard me out said, sure, she could refund my money. Did I want to wait up to two weeks to have the debit reversed? Or did I want to walk out the door with a city-issued debit card good for $5 at any parking meter? Of course, I took the card. (The amount in dispute was a whopping $2.79. So call me cheap -- my wife and son certainly did when I told them at dinner -- but it was the principle that mattered!)

As I rode the elevator back down to the street, I thought, I'll take this small victory anytime.

Portland Building photo: David Gn Photography
Parking meter photo: Functoruser