Watch for pink envelopes on windshields

Pink envelopes will begin to appear on windshields around Maricopa—if a parking violation has occurred.

According to the Maricopa Police Department, the changes will start taking effect around April 30 and will encompass the entire city, including inside strip mall parking lots.

“Parking tickets were part of our regular traffic tickets,” said Maricopa Police Chief Kirk Fitch. “We could only issue them if the violator was present.”

For MPD this has been a long time coming after having to go through the process of having public hearings, presenting to the city council at the Sept. 21, 2010, meeting, waiting for changes to the Maricopa City Code and then receiving approval from the council.

“We had to combine and put into code everything that was related with parking that was not related to state parking code,” Fitch said.

According to Fitch, nearly 85 percent of the funds collected will be going to the state, and the remaining 15 percent will come back to the city and go into the city’s general fund after being collected in the courts.

“In the long term the fees from the citations could end up going back to the city,” Fitch said. “There is a fee schedule that will be attached to the citation, and those fees or a reduced fee will be decided by a judge in court.”

The police department will cite from complaints and for vehicles that are illegally parked and pose a hazard.

According to Fitch, the biggest complaint stems from the use of handicapped spaces when the violator isn’t displaying a handicapped license plate or permit. The department will cite upon observation when a car is parked in a fire lane.

File photo