BUFFALO, N.Y. — City of Buffalo Parking Commissioner Kevin Helfer on Friday indicated the city would be willing to reopen the case of a disputed ticket, if the owners of the vehicle -- who insist the ticket was erroneously issued -- are willing to take the proper steps in their quest for relief.
The dispute, and the refusal by the vehicle’s owners to pay a fine, has resulted in their car's registration to be suspended, forcing them to take it off the road.
The dispute
Jim and Jody Bennett, who live in the Livingston County village of Dansville, received a notice in early June that there was an unpaid ticket issued against their vehicle.
The ticket was written on Richfield Avenue in South Buffalo on May 21, two days after the Bennetts say they left for South Carolina to visit a relative.
They also say their vehicle was locked in a garage to which no one had access.
The ticket was for an expired registration on a vehicle which the Bennetts insist had been newly registered by them just 3 months before.
Jim Bennett placed several phone calls and sent several letters the parking violations bureau in an attempt to clear up the situation, but declined to come to Buffalo for a scheduled hearing on the ticket on June 24.
He told 2 On Your Side that he had to work on the day of that hearing and did not feel he should have to drive all the way to Buffalo and back to answer for something he wasn’t guilty of.
The city responds
Initially, the city balked at providing 2 On Your Side an interview with Helfer, citing the potential for litigation in the case.
It was also the reason Mayor Byron Brown gave in declining to comment when we attempted to ask him about the matter on Friday morning.
However, after Common Council President Darius Pridgen became involved, the city made Helfer available on Friday afternoon.
“We’re not the bad guys here … we’re pretty reasonable,” Helfer told Channel 2’s Dave McKinley.
“We understand that these people live a distance from Buffalo. I wouldn’t want to make that drive of two hours or however long it takes either, just to come in and plead not guilty,” Helfer added.
At the same time, though, Helfer noted that ticket recipients can plead their case without traveling into the city.
“He (Bennett) talked to our staff, and they informed him that you can do this ex-parte, which means you can submit your evidence without coming in. He said he would do that. It went before an independent hearing officer. … She looked at the ticket, looked at his letter, and determined he was guilty,” Helfer said.
According to Helfer, the Bennetts had an opportunity to appeal the ruling, but failed to do so within the 30-day deadline.
“What we do in the case of an ex-parte is we send a letter out to the person who pleads not guilty, telling them of the decision and telling what the (appeal) process is. It states very clearly in the letter that if you disagree, which he obviously, you can appeal to have your case heard by an independent, three-member panel. He never did that,” Helfer said.
Even if the Bennetts had appealed, however, the process would have required them to pay the initial $40 fine for the ticket, to be held in escrow, until the appeal was decided, plus a $10 appeal fee.
“He stated in writing that he was not going to do that,” Helfer said.
That is when, according to Helfer, the city then notified the New York State Department of Vehicles, which subsequently revoked the registration on the Bennett’s vehicle.
Darius Pridgen reaches out to the Bennetts
After reviewing our story of Thursday, the Bennetts received a call on Friday afternoon from Buffalo Common Council President Darius Pridgen.
“I reached out because, at the end of the day, if their vehicle wasn’t in the city of Buffalo and they have proof that it wasn’t, I wouldn’t want to see them penalized,” said Pridgen, who said he felt a responsibility to reach out to the Bennetts and at least talk to them.
“We need to get to the bottom of whether a mistake occurred or didn’t, and if it did, then you say so and you make the person whole.”
A Simple Mistake?
The Bennetts had figured all along that this all began with a simple mistake, perhaps by an officer who wrote the wrong license plate number down when the ticket was issued on Richfield Avenue on South Buffalo on Tuesday, May 21.
“I’ll bet my last dollar that I could drive up there on a Tuesday at 5:45 p.m., and a car probably would be setting there with a plate that was one digit off of mine,” said Mr. Bennett, who is also a Livingston County Sheriff’s Deputy.
And indeed, when 2 On Your Side visited the location where the ticket was issued on Tuesday, there was an older model sedan parked with a license plate nearly identical in its letter and numerical sequence to the Bennett’s Jeep.
The only difference, was the first letter on the license plate on the sedan was a “G," while the plate on the Bennett’s Jeep starts with a “J”.
This hasn’t dissuaded Helfer.
“We talked to the officer who wrote that ticket, and he remembers the car,” he said, despite the passage of nearly six months since the ticket was issued.
The Bennetts, meanwhile, are just as insistent their vehicle was never on Richfield Avenue in Buffalo.
“We haven’t been to Buffalo for eight years,” Mr. Bennett said.
Asked if it was possible that the officer mistakenly punched in the wrong letter when he was writing the ticket, Helfer replied, “Certainly that’s possible … and it’s also possible the officer was correct.”
What Happens Now
Helfer said it is not up to him as the Parking Commissioner to decide on the validity of tickets or to waive them.
That, he said, is strictly the decision of the independent hearing examiners.
And on that note, Helfer indicated it might still be possible for the Bennetts to prevail.
“If he is willing to follow the process, we will re-open this,” Helfer said. “He would have to put the money is escrow and pay the $10 appeal fee, and it would go before a three member panel. But it’s his job to bring his evidence forward…so if he wants to follow the process he can come on in and we’ll open it up for him. I’m willing to do that.”
