City's Promise To Throw Out Thousands Of City Sticker Violations Still Unfulfilled
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The City of Chicago says it's working on developing software to prevent duplicate ticketing regarding city sticker violations.
This comes after CBS 2 Investigator Dorothy Tucker first reported the city was ripping up thousands of illegal duplicate tickets, but when she followed up nothing had changed.
Orlando Jones represents the 23,000 motorists who are victims of Chicago's double dipping. Jones was issued two tickets, each a $200 fine plus penalties, for the same car on the same day. The duplicate tickets violate city code.
"I didn't know it was wrong to get two tickets," Jones said. "I think it's unfair. I think it's negligence."
That's why Jones became a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed against the city last Thursday. Just hours after the paperwork went through, and about the same time CBS 2 started asking questions, the city issued a statement saying it had dismissed all excess tickets dating back to 1992. But so far, Jones' tickets are still due.
"They're still there. They haven't gone anywhere," Jones said.
A city finance department spokesperson said by mid-month drivers should either have their extra unpaid tickets dismissed or notices telling them how to get a refund on those that were paid.
Attorney Jacie Zolna, who filed the lawsuit, is still asking the courts to oversee the process to make sure the city dismisses the 23,000 duplicate tickets, refunds another 12,000 to motorists who already paid, and updates the system to prevent any more duplicates.
"It shouldn't be that difficult of a process to have a flag in the system to indicate when someone is getting double billed," he said.
A city spokesperson says the process to develop the new software will take a few weeks.
