The Department of Motor Vehicles and Sacramento State have an agreement to hold vehicle registration if parking citation fees are left unpaid.

According to University Transportation and Parking Services, payment for parking citations is due within 21 days of the violation or 14 days of the mailing date of the violation.

If payment is not received within that time, UTAPS adds a late fee of $28.

If the fees are not paid 25 days after issuance of the late fee, DMV will put a registration hold on the owner?s vehicle. DMV then collects all fees before issuing vehicle registration tags.

Junior Josh Phipps attended Brigham Young University before transferring to Sac State, and he did not know that a hold can be put on vehicle registration if citations are left unpaid.

“That is pretty lame, especially when the parking situation is so bad,” Phipps said. “The university I went to last only put holds on registration for classes.”

Sophomore Mark Atilano said he has received at least five or six parking citations.

“I understand that they have to ticket, but I don?t necessarily like it,” Atilano said. “The last thing I have on my mind is getting a daily parking pass.”

From July 1, 2000 to June 30, 2001, UTAPS issued 30,590 parking citations on campus and 37,740 total vehicle permits, equaling just under one parking citation per vehicle on campus.

Of those citations, 5,929 were appealed and 1,907 of these appeals were upheld.

UTAPS billed nearly $550,000, but only collected $500,983 from citations during 2000-01. The monies collected funded alternate commute options such as the Hornet Express Shuttle, according to Nancy Fox, manager of UTAPS.

Most citations were issued between October and December.

UTAPS issued the bulk of citations,18,096, for vehicles not showing a valid permit. The campus is divided into four areas for parking enforcement. Area four, which includes Parking Structure 1, students lots six, eight and 10 near the Hornet Stadium, and the overflow parking lots, had the most tickets issued for the year.

Sophomore Sara Meece, who works at the front desk of the UTAPS office, said she fields countless complaints about tickets and other issues.

“Many students complain that officers are not looking hard enough when they get citations for not having a permit in view,” Meece said. “Others complain that they couldn?t find a place to park so they shouldn?t have received a ticket.”

She tells students to fill out a request for an appeal.Fox said that transportation services handle parking citation issues that students have with a business-like approach.

“We recognize human error by practicing friendly customer service,” Fox said.

She said that appeals are processed based on fact and that each student can overturn two tickets per year.

Not every appeal is upheld. Sophomore Joanna Madden said she received a ticket recently for parking in an area near the dorms that was not a designated parking spot. She said that she parked there because she could not find available parking.

“I tried to appeal the ticket over the Internet, but I was found liable so I had to pay it,” Madden said.

Send comments, questions, or concerns to [email protected]

For questions or information regarding thesite, please contact [email protected]