Pizza-for-parking mostly to blame for $1.2M dip in fines

Pizza-for-parking mostly to blame for $1.2M dip in fines

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A pizza-for-parking scheme is mostly to blame for a dip in the number of parking tickets issued and fines collected in Salt Lake City.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports the city’s parking officers have written 40,000 fewer tickets this year and collections from overtime fees are down $1.2 million.

Nearly 130,000 tickets were issued in 2016 and collections topped $3 million. But so far this year, just more than 90,000 tickets have been issued.

The city earlier this year said parking compliance officers had been forgoing tickets for employees at a downtown pizza restaurant in exchange for free food. Four compliance officers were fired.

The compliance unit has been down seven of 20 officers, one of two supervisors, and an office technician, and is currently without a director. A new director hired in 2017 left during his initial probationary period.