At the Aug. 3 work session, the Garland City Council was briefed on the possibility of resuming the enforcement of a parking ordinance that had begun before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Assistant City Attorney Michael Betz told council that thousands of warnings and more than 100 citations had been issued before the pandemic and that as a result of those efforts, improvement had been seen in the illegal parking situation.
He added that he had received positive comments at community meetings and said that while driving around the neighborhoods that had the most problems, he had witnessed improvements.
When the court had to close because of COVID-19, parking enforcement was ceased because the court wouldn’t be available for people to ask for hearings. The deputies did continue to write warnings and sometimes knock on doors asking for cooperation. But despite that effort, compliance has decreased and there is again a problem with illegal parking.
The court reopened at 25% capacity about a month ago and Betz asked the council what they wanted to do about restarting the enforcement. He said that there are two limitations. The first is the decreased capacity at the courthouse for hearings along with the limited schedule of the hearing examiner who works only four days per week.
The second limitation is decreased manpower. Before the pandemic, two marshals at a time were needed to run operations at the court. Four marshals are now needed because of extra COVID-19 safety requirements such as temperature checking.
Betz’s suggestion was to resume enforcement but at a limited capacity. He would like to resume but for now, respond only to repeated complaints and focus on repeat offenders.
Council Member Jerry Nickerson is in favor of that plan.
“The sooner the better for all of us and all of our citizens,” he said.
Council Member Rich Aubin agreed.
“We need to get some of the enforcement back for some of the difficult violators,” he said.
Council Member Robert Vera also expressed agreement.
Council voted unanimously to restart enforcement using the plan that Betz suggested.