The City of Tulsa might replace its volunteer program to enforce disabled parking with paid part-time parking inspectors.
State law mandates a cumbersome process for the volunteers that hasn’t been very successful. They must take a photo of a violation and file it in a police department system so an officer can review it and write the ticket.
Asset management director Mark Hogan proposes hiring 10 part-time parking inspectors for 10 hours a week each.
"If you hire part-time employees, you can just make them parking inspectors and they can write citations, and we can just go about our business," Hogan told the city's human rights commission at a meeting yesterday.
The city may also use the part-time parking inspectors to crack down on meters. They would spend one hour of one day a week downtown. Hogan said one person currently covers 1,600 meters.
"If people are getting cited for not paying the meter, then the revenue from the meters goes up tremendously, which makes it easier for me to hire full-time people to then do further enforcement," Hogan told the commission.
The part-time inspectors would work two hours a day, five days a week. The goal is for the increase in parking fines to pay for the part-time employees.
Disabled parking violations come with a $500 fine.
