MIDDLEBURY — Jason Covey has been Middlebury’s police chief for six months now, and he’s still finding out new things about his job.
Case in point: He only recently learned he was responsible for hearing parking ticket appeals.
Yes, anyone who wanted to dispute the $5 parking ticket they’d found on their windshield was instructed to set up an appointment with the town’s top law enforcement officer.
The appeals process, which dates back more than three decades, seemed a bit archaic and open to perceptions of conflict of interest.
“It does not, in any sense, feel right for the police department to hear its own appeals to investigate itself,” Covey told the selectboard at one of its recent gatherings.
Municipal officials agreed with Covey, and there’s now a new process for anyone seeking to contest a parking ticket received in the county’s shire town.
Folks now have 20 days in which to appeal in writing (up from the previous 10 days). That appeal can be made through the town’s website or at the police headquarters at 1 Lucius Shaw Lane. Once received, the ticket recipient’s case will be scheduled for a hearing before a new, three-person panel that includes a police designee and two members of the town’s Public Health & Safety Committee.
If dissatisfied with that panel’s ruling, the ticketed person can appeal to the full Public Health & Safety Committee, according to a new policy the selectboard unanimously endorsed on April 9.
“It shifts it from an in-person discussion to a review, and the review wouldn’t be done by the police chief,” Covey said.
Middlebury officials issued more than 900 parking tickets last year, and Covey reported only nine parking ticket appeals since he was promoted to chief last September.
“Some people do contest $5 parking tickets, and then there are those who consider that cheap parking and pay it happily,” he said.
Folks who work and shop in Middlebury should stay tuned, as more changes could be on the way.
“I envision this as the first phase of a revisions to the parking ordinance as a whole,” Covey said, referring specifically to the town’s overnight winter parking ban and the fee schedule.
“It’s time, I believe,” he said.
Reporter John Flowers is at johnf@addisonindependent.com.
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