Asher Stockler|Rockland/Westchester Journal News
On a recent weekday morning in downtown White Plains, I was backing into a free spot on Martine Avenue in preparation for a column about the city’s Traffic Ordinance.
Unprompted, a woman feeding the meter for an adjacent spot began grumbling about the city’s usurious penalties for parking violations. In her 60s,the woman observed that in her younger years, violations would rarely cost more than $5 or $10.
Today, the city collects around $6.2 million from parking fines each year. And if the city gets its way, I will contribute $100 toward that sum after I was charged, twice, with violating the ordinance on a pair ofparking tickets.
The Traffic Ordinance isan endless string of rules that comprises the parking and traffic laws of the city of White Plains. It is filled with minutiae about the placement of stop signs and curbside loading zones.
But it also contains an assortment of higher-order rules pertaining to traffic and parking infractions that motorists in the city, or those just passing through, must follow.
On myticket, an officer referenced a "Sect. to 228" of the Traffic Ordinance as the basis for the alleged violation. It apparently had something to do with the vehicle's registration, though it was styled as a parking ticket.
Finding that section, however, proved to be a major challenge.The Parking Department, Law Department and City Clerk each suggested that the other might have a full and complete copy of the ordinance, including Section 228, which I was unable to initially locate.
Like many other towns and villages, White Plains allows anyone with a passing interest in the law to browse the code online. However, the Traffic Ordinance cannot be found there.
It appears that a comprehensive, actual copy of the city's traffic and parking laws only exists in two places. One option is to peruse a tattered, grease-stained compilation of the law at the White Plains Public Library's ready reference section.
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That is where I found myself on a Monday evening in late September, standing over the city's Traffic Ordinance. I ranmy finger down the index to locate the relevant page out of the hundreds the city has crammed into a multi-inchbinder.
The index, I found, was last updated severalsections before Section 228, which was enacted a decade ago. So how could Ilocatethe charge, much less understand what it even was?
According toBrian Kenney, the library's director, motorists such as myself would previously scan the overstuffed binder before making an appearancein traffic court, where they could challenge parking violations or other infractions.
He says that the binder is updated regularly, although certain material, such as the index, may be years out of date. After making inquiries, the Parking Department ultimately provided me with a copy of the relevant section that they happened to have on hand.
The travails of finding the city's parking and traffic rules, though, raise questions about who ultimately has access to the law of the land, and who gets deterred from navigating the system.
The right of public access to local ordinances is a key part of citizen participation in local democracy, according toPeter Martin, a co-founder of Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute and the school's dean from 1980 to 1988.
"There are countless instances in which citizens are curious about what rights they have and what responsibilities they have under the local law," Martin said."There needs to be a place where a citizen can go. For many, that means online."
John Callahan is the White Plainscorporation counsel, the top lawyer on the job. He emphasizes that around 90% of the Traffic Ordinance contains lesser information that isnot of great urgency to the public, such as the location of stop signs.
However, the remaining 10% may be of critical importance, as the city's traffic and parking rules can be used as a basis for issuing tickets. The city is known for its iron-fisted approach to enforcement.
Callahan said that it wasn't clear anybody had previouslyconsideredpublishing the Traffic Ordinance electronically, though he explained that over the summer an intern had begun diligently retyping the entire binder so that it could eventually be put online.
Because the Common Council updates the traffic laws around every one to three months, it requires constant vigilance to make sure the binder is up to date.
No downside to fighting tickets
In the meanwhile, what should amotorist do who receives a ticket with an obscure section of the law cited on front?
Eli Moore, a Westchester-based traffic violations lawyer and formerBronx County assistant district attorney, advised that there is no downside to fighting tickets, especially during COVID-19, when cases are being processed via mail.
"A lotof peopleget a ticket for anything and think they have to pay it and plead guilty, that there is no recourse for moving violations or speeding tickets," he said. "But they can always plead not guilty, andmost times, you’ll get a reduction. You have nothing to lose. The fines aren't going to be any greater if you fight a ticket."
Martin, the former Cornell Law School dean, notes that laws enforced at the local level especially can have a disparate impact among different members of the community. Discretionary enforcement, he says, opens the door to "abuse of discretion."
When police and parking enforcement officers have a raft of laws at their disposal to use, or disregard, as they see fit, individual decision-makingand all of the biases that come with it can have an outsize influence on who ends up charged.
That is why public access to the law, as Martin emphasizes, can help equip citizens with the tools needed to fight charges issued by a public authority. "Citizens ought to be empowered to do that," he notes.
This schismis no clearer than in New York City in the early aughts, when police officers continued to charge homeless residents with a panhandling violation that had been declared unconstitutional years earlier.
Despite the law's unconstitutionality, the NYPD "continued to arrest, prosecute, issue bench warrants and issue an alarming number of summonses for violations," Judge Shira A. Scheindlin said at the time.
Attorneys for the homeless residents said that prosecutors needed to "exercise discretion" regarding the charges, but instead exhibited "gross and wanton deliberate indifference" to their constitutional rights.
The case was ultimately settled.
In White Plains, the battle between motorists and officersremains an ongoing feature of everydaylife. Because the city court is not holding in-person hearings for traffic infractions, I will have to contest the charge via mail.
What ultimately happens will be determined by a city judge. His or her decision will clarify whether the status quo is alive and well in White Plains, or whether small-time motorists like you and me can notch a win against the city on occasion.
Stay tuned for the outcome.
Asher Stockler is a reporter for The Journal News. You can find him on Twitter at @quasiasher or send him an email at astockler@lohud.com. Reach him securely: asher.stockler@protonmail.com.
