By Jodie Tillman, Times Staff Writer
Thursday, December 2, 2010
HOLIDAY — Juanita and Hugh Ward say they never saw the sign for $2 parking. They just parked their car at Key Vista Park late Sunday afternoon and took a walk on the trails.
But when the Michigan snowbirds returned to their car, they say they saw three Pasco sheriff's deputies writing $20 parking tickets — including one for their Toyota.
"They were handing out tickets left and right," said Juanita Ward, 78.
So much for a grace period. Less than a week into the start of a new $2 vehicle fee at some county parks, the Pasco Sheriff's Office handed out nearly a dozen parking violations Sunday at the three coastal parks off Baillies Bluff Road.
Days earlier, parks director Rick Buckman had said Pasco would use the next few weeks to inform people about the new fees, not to write them up.
But Buckman oversees only the county parks workers, who write ordinance violations, and not the deputies, who have the authority to write parking citations.
"The deputies are just doing their jobs," Buckman said this week, "but we're not calling them."
Pasco sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll initially said patrol deputies would not spend their limited time writing parking tickets. He said the county's civilian patrol deputies had their hands full writing tickets for handicap parking violations.
But after learning from the Times that the Wards' citation was indeed issued by a patrol deputy, Doll checked again. He said he found out that a sergeant had been in the Anclote parks area on another matter and fielded complaints from at least two residents who wanted to know:
Why wasn't the Sheriff's Office enforcing the $2 parking fees?
The complaints came, he said, from people who had paid their fees.
That sergeant called in another deputy to write citations, Doll said, though he could not confirm whether three deputies were handing out tickets at Key Vista.
The Holiday area is one of the two sectors that Sheriff Bob White wants to beef up with new patrol deputies. The County Commission denied his funding request for 28 new deputies, and the sheriff has filed a budget appeal with the governor and the Florida Cabinet.
But Doll said Sunday was a rare event given the demands on deputies. "That's going to be a very low priority," he said.
The Class 1 parking violations carry a $20 fine for the first 30 days and $35 after 40 days. The entire $20 remitted to the Pasco Clerk and Comptroller's Office goes back to the county, said Kevin Fulford, chief administrative officer for the clerk's office.
The Wards, who returned to Pasco early last month and had not heard about the new $2 fees, say they loved long walks at Key Vista. But will they go there again? They say they're not sure.
Hugh Ward, 82, said he had told the deputy that he had missed the signs and that he would pay the $2 fee immediately. "He said, 'It's too late now,' " said Ward.
He said he couldn't go to sleep that night, thinking about the ticket over and over. He won't feel good about this: That $20 fine is a third of the price of an annual parking pass.
Jodie Tillman can be reached at jtillman@sptimes.com or (727) 869-6247.