Meter-made

[December 19th, 2007]

Commissioner Sam Adams , who oversees the Portland Office of Transportation, has made improving city’s roads and railways a key issue in his bid for mayor.

In the meantime, he has been going out of his way—albeit indirectly—to fund the city’s transportation network. Over the years, Adams has managed to earn more parking fines per day than any current member of the City Council.

Adams has racked up $926 in tickets—all of them paid—since 2003, according to court records. Most were downtown parking fines. Though not quite as expensive as an addiction to lattes or the lottery, Adams’ parking problem has cost him about 63 cents a day.

It’s perhaps fitting that Adams, who is calling for the City Council next month to pass a street maintenance fee for residents and businesses to cover a $422 million transportation “maintenance backlog,” has contributed most often to Portland’s transportation infrastructure.

For every $24 parking ticket, about $9.60 returns to the city’s transportation budget. A much smaller share of that, about $1.05, ends up going toward the city’s capital projects, like paving streets or painting stripes for bike lanes. Thus, Adams’ parking fines have contributed about $40 toward city street improvements—which, to be fair, wouldn’t buy enough paint to stripe a milelong white line.

“I’m glad I return a significant portion of my salary to the city,” Adams deadpans.

Looked at another way, Adams’ ongoing personal struggle with Portland’s parking meters seems to confirm a persistent complaint from motorists, one that’s usually denied by the city’s transit wonks: that downtown parking is inadequate to meet motorists’ needs. For the record, Adams sides with the wonks.

“There is enough parking downtown,” Adams says. “Sadly, I get in meetings that are longer than the amount of parking available.”

Commissioner Erik Sten , the longest-serving member of the council, has actually paid more traffic fines than Adams: $930 worth. But Sten’s sum includes violations going all the way to 1987. And Sten, a regular bus commuter, pleads other extenuating circumstances.

“I am not surprised, but it’s actually my wife,” said Sten, before thinking better of it. “That doesn’t sound good—I think I’ll leave my wife out of it.”

Commissioner Dan Saltzman has amassed $412 in tickets since 1987. The last came in November 2004, when he was dinged $40 for parking in a tow-away zone.

Mayor Tom Potter , a former police chief, has paid $152 for parking violations since 1998. But since taking office in 2004, he has only been ticketed once ($40 for parking in a carpool-only zone). That’s because being a mayor comes with certain privileges. Potter’s golden Prius rests above the fray in a reserved spot outside City Hall.

“Tom is the only person, maybe in the city, who has a parking spot,” says Potter spokesman John Doussard. “He has a tremendously unfair advantage.”

Without benefit of a designated space, Commissioner Randy Leonard has managed to evade the city’s methodical meter readers. A records search turns up only one traffic ticket for Leonard, for overtime parking, which dates to 1997. The Oregonian reported in 2004 that he got a warning for going 30 mph in a school zone.

Leonard—who doesn’t remember the 10-year-old ticket but concedes the possibility of its existence—maintains he has no special parking arrangements when he’s out and about.

However, Leonard says, he does occasionally leave his car in a lot near Southeast 122nd Avenue and Powell Boulevard, then rides his bike downtown.

Leonard, who also takes public transportation, has given up commuting by car. “It was insane,” says Leonard. “The tickets are just part of it. It’s the aggravation, the hassle.”