Saturday parking meters go unenforced

Parked at a city parking meter on a Saturday? If you keep your quarters, no one will ticket you.

Even though Albuquerque meters instruct drivers to pay 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday, no weekend enforcement officers are on duty. Budget cuts beginning in fiscal year 2010 meant city enforcement officers only work Monday-Friday, Albuquerque Parking Director Leona Martinez said.

“We cannot keep someone on staff to help with Saturday meter enforcement,” she said. “Even though it’s not enforced doesn’t mean you aren’t required to pay. It is still expected for anyone using the spots to pay for their time there.”

A local business owner said he has been informing those parking outside his store Saturdays that they will not be ticketed. He said he preferred to remain anonymous to avoid retaliation from the city.

“One person at a time I am letting them know,” he said. “The person who told me used to be my mailman. He said he would have breakfast with the meter maids and that they would laugh at how the public would pay on Saturdays when they weren’t working.”
Martinez said the city is not trying to trick people.

“We can’t control decisions that the public makes for themselves,” she said. “A lot of people also pay after 6 p.m., and we don’t enforce then, either.”

The business owner said the city will not change signs to reflect the correct information, because it generates money.

“If you multiply all the meters in Nob Hill, UNM and Downtown, there are about 2,000 meters in the area,” he said. “If everybody puts at least a dollar in each meter, that is $2,000 every Saturday — $8,000 a month that the city is making. If you multiply that for the last 10 years, that’s a lot of money.”

Martinez said she did not have the specific amount of how much money the city’s generated on Saturdays, but the meters brought in $1 million for the city in fiscal year 2010. She said Downtown, UNM and Nob Hill are the largest revenue generators.
The business owner said the city is deliberately deceiving the public to raise money.

“I understand the city needs revenue, but this is just an all-out scam to make more money,” he said. “Knowing that they are laughing at the public tells me they are doing it purposefully.”
Martinez said the city might eliminate meters altogether if enforcement officers’ funding is discontinued.

“It’s something that is on the table for council and the mayor’s office to decide,” she said. “Every entity within the city is dealing with major budget cuts this time around. We may delete them altogether because the city of Albuquerque is looking at losing positions across the board permanently.”