$20,200 in unpaid parking tickets?

[Pedro56]

That's for 1 Board of Ed employee whose license was finally suspended

January 26, 2007
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

Mayor Daley has spent 11 years trying to erase the memory of the City Hall scofflaw scandal, but the message has apparently been lost on Chicago Board of Education employee Ovadiah Lords.

Lords, a school security aide at Louis J. Agassiz School, 2851 N. Seminary, owes the city $20,200 for 127 overdue parking tickets dating back to 2003. Records show his license has been suspended because of the mounting tickets.

Lords' wages are finally being garnished after a delay caused by confusion about his address, according to City Hall. It was cleared up when the secretary of state's office agreed to require driver's license numbers on license plate registration forms.

"We had to make sure we had the right person," said Revenue Department spokesman Ed Walsh.

Lords could not be reached for comment. He is one of five Chicago Public Schools employees on the top 10 list of parking ticket deadbeats among local government employees. School employees also occupy nine of the top 10 spots on the list of water bill scofflaws. They're led by Harvey Allen, who has an outstanding water bill of $3,695.

Together, Board of Education employees have piled up $722,849 in outstanding debts, including parking tickets, water bills, administrative hearing fines and cost recovery debts.

Debts down $7.1 million

That's compared to $291,198 owed by CTA workers, $169,739 for city employees, $123,086 for City Colleges and $85,202 for the Chicago Park District. The Chicago Housing Authority, which once had a huge in-house debt, now owes a paltry $5,274.

Thanks to 5,548 wage garnishments in the last year, payment plans, indebtedness coordinators in every city department, and the threat of disciplinary action, government employee debt is down from an all-time high of $8.5 million in 1996 to just under $1.4 million today. That's even though administrative hearing fines and cost recovery debts have been factored in for the first time.

Asked why the message has not gotten through to some at the Board of Education, Revenue Director Bea Reyna-Hickey blamed union contracts with "not as much flexibility" for discipline.

Pressed on why the in-house debt cannot be eliminated, she said, "People get more tickets. There's employees [who] leave. There are new hires. It's a constantly changing number. All we can do is stay on top of it so it never grows to the level that it was" 11 years ago.

Lords' case has been referred to the school system's inspector general for possible disciplinary action, according to Chicago Public Schools spokeswoman Celeste Garrett. "This is really bad. This is a problem. . . . These people are subject to losing their jobs," she said.

The City Hall scofflaw scandal broke in October 1996 when then-city Clerk Jim Laski embarrassed and infuriated Daley by blowing the whistle on millions of dollars in unpaid water bills and parking tickets owed by government employees..

Natarus owed $1,030 in '96

Daley responded by releasing a list of deadbeats that included mistakes and the names of employees who had already paid.

The mayor also cracked the whip. Career service employees were given 30 days to pay up or face disciplinary action. Management employees were given seven days to comply.

The 1996 list of parking ticket scofflaws was led by a Water Department truck driver with 118 tickets totaling $7,790. It also included a few aldermen.

Downtown Ald. Burton F. Natarus (42nd), who had 21 tickets, promptly paid the $1,030 he owed, saying, "I apologize to the public. We're not privileged."

fspielman@suntimes.com

[BEB]

How much is a parking ticket anyhow? I assume a lot of that is late fees and such.

[jmur5074]

In my town, once a car has something like $77 dollars in unpaid tickets, we just tow their car.

They can't get it back until the tickets are satisfied.


Oh, and warrants are also issued in case they decide they just don't want their car anymore.

[Pedro56]

Some of the fines are ridiculous, they range from 25 to 150.