Summonses to go out for unpaid Columbia parking tickets

More than 500 people who have not paid their parking ticket will get a letter in the mail soon telling them show up in city court.

Judge Cavanaugh Noce told ABC 17 News that he will soon mail the summonses to people who missed their first court dates for parking tickets. The city began providing court dates to people, which are printed on the ticket itself, in May following a Missouri Supreme Court rule requiring all municipal violations to come with a court date.

Noce said he underestimated the number of people who did not show up. He guessed that people may still be getting used to the new rule. The court summonses, he said, would hopefully compel people to come to court and take care of their tickets.

“That may be the time where we’re really educating people about the new system,” Noce said.

Receiving a summons, though, could cost someone more to take care of the ticket. Noce said the court could charge $21.50 in court costs on top of the ticket, which after 15 days of not paying would cost $30. Noce said he would consider waiving court costs in many cases.

Parking tickets can still be taken care of by paying them online or in person. Racking up more than five parking tickets will allow Columbia Public Works to either tow a car or place a “Barnacle” device on the windshield.

Noce said he had 524 people on Thursday’s docket for parking tickets. Two of them paid online, two came in early to pay them and two asked for more time to pay it. Noce said he let one of those two people take care of the ticket by doing community service work.

“Instead of being really worried about [paying the ticket] and maybe getting Barnacled or towed in the future, you can come in and either ask for that time or, in addition, I allow people to do community service work instead of making those payments,” Noce said. “So I do think there’s an additional benefit there.”

The new rule also means Noce can issue warrants for people’s arrest if they do not show up to court to pay for their parking tickets. Noce told ABC 17 News that he plans on sending two summonses to court before considering a warrant.