Marines Rack Up Parking Tickets
The city of White Plains, N.Y., is not happy with the Marine Corps -- specifically, with Marine recruiters who have racked up more than $90,000 in unpaid parking tickets dating back to 2001. Now, the Journal-News reports, the city's parking commissioner, Albert Moroni, has impounded one of the Marine recruiters' cars and is threatening to sell it at auction if the service doesn't pay its fines. Moroni worked with the General Services Administration to determine exactly which federal organizations were responsible for serial parking violations in the city. And it turned out that the Marines do seem to have a problem. On the list of scofflaws, vehicles with diplomatic plates were a distant second to the Marines, with $5,910 in unpaid tickets, followed by Army recruiters, with $3,575 in pending fines.
Still, GSA has apparently warned Moroni that if he follows through on his threat to sell off a federal vehicle, he might receive a visit from the FBI.
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Government Executive Staff Correspondent Alyssa Rosenberg takes a look at news affecting the management and operations of the massive federal bureaucracy.
If Mr.Moroni is speaking about tickets issued to Federal Government vehicles I suggest he read Chief Justice Marshall's comments in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819). The doctrine of soverign immunity is fairly well stated and has been support by the courts for almost 200 years. Basically the soverign (Federal Government)is immune from any fines levied on it by another sovereign. In this case, the individual recruiters are liable for any fines they incur while performing their duties, not the federal government. Furthermore, if the fines are for unpaid parking tickets, Mr. Moroni should look at the city ordinance to determine if the parking meter fees being charges are a revenue raising device (a tax on the federal government) or are they a traffic control device. My guess is that they are a revenue raising device from which the federal government is immune.
rjataxman Posted Friday, July 27, 2007 10:45 AMWell, if he does, and they do, maybe he should check them for any other assets that could be seized to pay off the debt. lol.
HD Wood Posted Friday, July 27, 2007 4:40 PMThis is another example of UNINVOLVED military leadership within the recruiting commands. All of the military services have leadership problems within their respective recruiting commands, and this is just another example. Those commanders know who was driving which vehicle and when, they are more than capable of making sure those who get parking tickets pay them, THEY CHOOSE NOT TOO. Just another indicator of the kind of leadership being exercised within those recruiting commands and further explains why there are so many incidients of wrong doing and failure to meet mission requirements within those commands.
been there Posted Monday, July 30, 2007 9:18 AM