Posted on 03/23/2007 8:04:40 PM PDT by Founding Father
3/22/2007
Florida: City to Seize Homes Over a $5 Parking Ticket Brooksville, Florida proposes to foreclose homes and seize cars over less than $20 in parking tickets.
The city council in Brooksville, Florida voted this week to advance a proposal granting city officials the authority to place liens and foreclose on the homes of motorists accused of failing to pay a single $5 parking ticket. Non-homeowners face having their vehicles seized if accused of not paying three parking offenses.
According to the proposed ordinance, a vehicle owner must pay a parking fine within 72 hours if a meter maid claims his automobile was improperly parked, incurring tickets worth between $5 and $250. Failure to pay this amount results in the assessment of a fifty-percent "late fee." After seven days, the city will place a lien on the car owner's home for the amount of the ticket plus late fees, attorney fees and an extra $15 fine. The fees quickly turn a $5 ticket into a debt worth several hundred dollars, growing at a one-percent per month interest rate. The ordinance does not require the city to provide notice to the homeowner at any point so that after ninety days elapse, the city will foreclose. If the motorist does not own a home, it will seize his vehicle after the failure to pay three parking tickets.
Any motorist who believes a parking ticket may have been improperly issued must first pay a $250 "appeal fee" within seven days to have the case heard by a contract employee of the city. This employee will determine whether the city should keep the appeal fee, plus the cost of the ticket and late fees, or find the motorist not guilty. Council members postponed a decision on whether to reduce this appeal fee until final adoption of the measure which is expected in the first week of April.
The city council members there in Brooskville are feeling quite full of themselves ....
The full text of the ordinance is available in a 605k PDF file at the source link below.
http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/docs/2007/brooksville.pdf
I thought NYC was tough
Stay out of Brooksville.
Government power is now past the point of no return.
Perhaps the advocates of the bill have mortgaged the value of their homes several times over and now think they can outrun the leinholder with an after the fact primal lein.
I don't understand why homeowners don't get a lien on their vehicles as do the non-homeowners. Nuts. I'd be calling Two-Men-And-A-Truck and hauling my stuff out of town to friendlier territory. If they are doing this for parking tickets, no telling what they will do for jaywalking.
What person would want to buy property there? The fools are devaluing their own property.
Population (year 2000): 7,264. Estimated population in July 2005: 7,637 (+5.1% change)
I for one sure as heck would find somewhere else to live.
It seems to me the government of this town gets you coming and going and there is No independent judiciary to see if you are being wronged or not.
I would hate to be around when they attempt to foreclose on the first House.They,The towns government are playing with fire.
My son, who lives in downtown Los Angeles, just informed me yesterday that he got a jaywalking ticket for $119. He said he had run accross the street to avoid some gangbangers that were walking behind him.
If I lived there, instead of a new town to live in, I'd be
looking for new people to run it. These folks just enacted
themselves out of office....JJ61
Just in case anyone would like to contact them:
http://www.ci.brooksville.fl.us/
Just think what a jackpot something like this would be for our politicians in NJ, state of the phatom parking tickets.
The ticket was for about $40, which is already outrageous for a small town. But what really burned me is that there was a notation that if I didn't pay within 15 days, the fine would double. I went down to the town office to ask them who the hell they thought they were. I asked "Are you the Mafia? You're just like a loan shark demanding 100% interest after 15 days!"
They could only lamely reply, "The Town council approved it" over and over. I made it a point to vote against all existing asshats on the Council, before I moved.
"Laws" like these are why people hate government. Arbitrary and unfair fines and fees, and even worse, confiscating people's cars and homes without justification or due process are totalitarian actions.
But then again, we put up with so much from our governments, so what's a little more abuse?
He escapes a beating only to be robbed. Eeesh.
The per capita income for the city was $16,265 in 2000.
That $250 appeal fee is no joke.
Actually, I'd day some members of the council are looking to take a dirt nap...
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