Have unpaid Columbia parking tickets? You may soon be in trouble

It may be time to revisit that parking ticket you threw in the backseat and forgot about.

In the next few months, the city of Columbia is planning to roll out a slate of new programs to make collecting on parking tickets easier — and avoiding them a lot harder.

The changes come as nearly $2 million worth of unpaid parking tickets loom over the city — signaling to parking officials it’s time to try something new.

The city hasn’t been able to collect on more than 50,000 parking tickets worth $1,863,654 including late fees, according to reporting from the TV station WIS. Those figures account for tickets issued between March 2020 and April 2023.

The problem is twofold, explained Columbia’s deputy director of parking services, Tori Salvant.

Right now, anyone with tickets adding up to $100 or more can be towed – and many are, Salvant said.

On any given day, the city may have 2-6 vehicles towed. Those vehicles sometimes have more than $1,000 in unpaid tickets and late fees.

But towing surprisingly isn’t the best deterrent for people who struggle to pay their parking tickets. By the time a tow truck is called and arrives, the violator may already be gone, Salvant said. Parking officials also use a bit more discretion on when to call a tow truck.

Now, parking officials are testing a new strategy.

In the next few months, you may start seeing bright yellow boxes affixed to vehicles on Main Street and Saluda Avenue as the city pilots a new parking enforcement system.

The bright yellow boxes are called barnacles and will be latched onto vehicles that have racked up at least three tickets totaling $100 or more that are at least 30 days old.

Similar to those big yellow boots that get strapped on car tires in big cities, the barnacle prevents a driver from moving their car. It gets strapped onto a vehicle’s windshield and can’t be removed until a person’s tickets have been paid.

Once the driver’s fines are paid online, along with a $35 fee, they would receive a code that unlocks the barnacle. The driver would then also be responsible for returning the device at one of several designated drop sites, or face a $250 holding fee.

The barnacles can be placed almost immediately once a parking enforcement monitor determines the vehicle meets the criteria. The barnacles won’t completely eliminate towing, but the immediacy of the action should help address problems with repeat offenders, especially downtown, Salvant said.

Charleston began using the barnacles in 2022 and collected on $40,000 in unpaid tickets and fees in its first 6 months of use, according to local news reports.

The other problem with parking enforcement is collecting fees from people who no longer live here. Out of state travelers and people who have long moved out of Columbia account for a lot of the unpaid tickets, Salvant said. The city also legally can’t collect on tickets more than 3 years old.

With nearly $2 million in unpaid tickets, the city is shifting its strategy and will soon start using a collections agency to recoup those fines.

The city is still sorting out details, Salvant said, but after a certain amount of time — she gave 90 days as an example — any unpaid ticket would go to a collections agency. Then the person would also have to pay a $15 collections fee in addition to however much is owed on the ticket.

Both of the new strategies are more aggressive than the city’s past parking enforcement tactics, but Salvant said the city will still try to work with motorists to reduce what they owe.

“We’re not just going to come out of the gate and start doing collections and start doing the barnacle,” she said. “We don’t want it to seem like the city is coming after everybody.”

The city is also looking at a program to waive late fees for some drivers, though the specifics for that program are still being determined, she said.

It’s unclear exactly when each of these new programs will launch, but Salvant asked that drivers be patient and understanding with parking enforcement employees, who often bear the brunt of drivers’ frustration with their tickets.

“When you get a citation, don’t be angry at the one who issued the citation, they’re just doing their job,” she said.