The Hapeville City Council has delayed a potential vote on a booting ordinance until at least May after more changes were added.
On Tuesday night, the council spent another hour on an issue it has dealt with for nearly three months after city residents and visitors complained about having their cars immobilized with boot-like devices at a Virginia Avenue parking lot.
The lot serves Motel 6 and a Ruby Tuesday's restaurant. However, patrons of Spondivitis, a nearby seafood restaurant, park there when the Spondivitis lot is full. People have left that restaurant to find their vehicles booted, and in anger have bombarded the council with e-mails and messages.
Frustrating to council members, the booting has taken place on private property, but the city has been blamed for it. To ease the confusion, the council suggested an ordinance change that involves the booting receipt.
“I’d like to see the company’s corporate address placed on the receipt so people know who to contact about the issue,” Councilman Lew Valero said.
The council also added to the ordinance a requirement that employees of the booting company submit to registration.
Mayor Alan Hallman, who has studied how other governments legislate booting, said a fundamental problem will remain even after the city passes an ordinance.
“You just can’t legislate compassion or common sense,” he said.
Hallman shared an e-mail he received last week with the council. A Hapeville resident was on her way to a doctor’s appointment on a rainy day when her windshield wipers quit working. She pulled into the parking lot, and her husband picked her up and took her to the appointment.
When the couple returned, the woman's car had been booted, and no compassion was offered from the booting company’s employee.
“By just looking at it from a black and white perspective, they did illegally park, but there has to be some common sense here,” he said.
Joseph McGlone, who represented Georgia Parking Enforcement, said the company does remove some boots but hears a countless number of excuses.
“The number of boots has dropped from 415 in October to 160 in March,” he said.
The council asked City Attorney Paul Koster to add the registration and receipt requirements to the ordinance. A first reading will be held April 19.
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