NOREEN: This time, you CAN fight City Hall

If you have paid a fine for parking in the Barr Trail parking lot since 2001, you should go immediately to Manitou Springs City Hall and demand that your money be repaid.

Truly, in its bumbling, stumbling foibles over the Barr Trail parking lot, Manitou has resembled Mayberry R.F.D. instead of looking like the cool, eclectic enclave it cultivates in its self image.

The background distilled: Manitou recently approved a measure to charge $5 for anyone who parks at the foot of Barr Trail. That would generate upwards of $90,000 a year. This was a brilliant money-making idea until it was learned that Colorado Springs Utilities, not Manitou, owns the lot.

Manitou's 20-year lease with the utility for the lot ended in 2001 and was not renewed, yet Manitou has continued to issue parking tickets for a lot it does not own or lease. Either that's wrong or the Manitou City Council should start charging for parking at, say, Denver International Airport or Chapel Hills Mall — places where it has similar authority over parked cars.

By Tuesday Manitou's leaders, including Mayor Eric Drummond, talked about that huge oversight as if it was a technicality, a wrinkle that can be ironed out quickly at a negotiating table.

You don't own the lot, you don't lease the lot, you don't maintain the lot, but you think you can charge money for the lot?

Oh, the officials in Mayberry, uh, Manitou, will say they must zealously enforce the fire lane at the Barr Trail parking lot, and that's what gives them the authority to issue tickets there. Their parking enforcement officers don't regularly patrol lots owned by motels and restaurants, but never mind.

What Manitou officials are really zealous about is revenue, and that's why they were so excited about charging for parking at the lot in the first place.

On Wednesday, parking officer Dorothy Fife (no relation to Deputy Barney Fife) was writing tickets that would cost $15 a pop for each "violator." Just as Mayberry wouldn't allow Barney to have bullets in his gun, Manitou should think about taking the ink out of Dorothy's pen.

Nothing personal, Dorothy. It's your bosses who need to get straight about this.

Asked whether the parking citations served since 2001 were issued illegally, Manitou Springs Municipal Court Judge Martin Thrasher mused, "It's an interesting situation." Thrasher said that in the six years he's been judge, no one has contested a parking ticket from the Barr Trail parking lot.

On Thursday, Mayberry started playing defense, telling The Gazette that no information about parking fines would be released without a formal open records request by the paper. A police supervisor (not Andy Taylor) refused an interview request.
OK, we get it.

But remember, people: Don't pay any tickets issued at the lot, and if you had to pay in the past, demand a refund.

Good luck fighting city hall. And if you see Opie or Aunt Bee, please say hello.
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