To the editor:
Terrorizing the public is not a good thing for the city. Things are hard enough now without being held up by some hired gun handing out parking tickets and booting cars in a willy-nilly fashion. Extending the abuse to Buckhead only makes things worse. We should make it easy and economical for people to come to the city and park.
What do you want them to do? Go to Cobb County and pay sales taxes there instead of here?
Some things I read suggest the problem is with communication. It isn’t. It is with putting a governmental function in the hands of people out to get all the loot they can.
The idea of the city getting a flat amount with the contractor getting everything else gives them an incentive to go crazy with tickets while giving the city nothing. There seems to be no punishment for the contractor for their wrongdoing, like putting tickets on cars in places that aren’t even marked “No Parking.”
I have read that they are supposed to provide more money to the city than we are getting now. But then I read that it is because they are charging for parking in a lot more places, not because they are smarter or more efficient than the city employees. This is a perfect example of a company coming in and outsmarting the government officials at the expense of the citizens.
This sort of abuse of us, the taxpayers, can’t be tolerated. We aren’t just here to provide revenue. We are also the ones you are supposed to be working for.
This contract needs to be voided on the grounds of incompetence and these people should be run out of town.
R. Lamar Smith