Media General News Service<p>A Staunton journalist has been ticketed 122 times for parking violations and fined $5,445 in the past 19 months, according to Staunton District Court records.<p>Daily News Leader reporter Tim Harrington "is most likely" the heaviest-ticketed motorist in the city during that period, several city sources said.<p>Since January 2002, Harrington has been cited for 110 parking violations, 12 failure-to-pay parking tickets and one citation for running a red light.
Harrington refused to comment Monday, as did his managing editor, David Fritz, and Tara Connell, vice president of corporation communications for the Staunton paper’s parent firm, Gannett Co. Inc., based in McLean, Va.<p>Harrington’s tickets and fines account for nearly 8 percent of the total dollar amount collected by the city for parking tickets in the past 19 months.<p>Parking fines recently were increased from $3 to $5, but substantial fines are added if the ticket is not paid within a prescribed time.<p>Harrington’s tickets and fines ranged from the minimum to $57 for a single ticket. The total amount he was charged was more than 10 times the face value of his tickets.<p>Motorists ticketed in Staunton get five days to pay parking tickets before receiving letters giving them 15 additional days. After that, the ticketed motorist receives a court summons.
Records show that Harrington was found guilty in absentia -- meaning he did not make court dates -- at least 89 times.<p>Staunton city spokesman Doug Cochran said for the full fiscal years 2002 and 2003, the city collected about $50,000 and $39,200, respectively, in parking-related fines.
Cochran and Staunton police Capt. Leslie Miller said there is adequate parking in downtown Staunton.<p>Harrington’s name last week appeared on a court docket in connection with multiple traffic tickets. A search of a Virginia courts computer database then showed that over the past 19 months, 122 parking tickets had been issued to Harrington, who did not challenge the numbers when reached Monday.<p>City officials said no one else in Staunton approaches that number.<p>Part of a reporter’s job is to serve as a watchdog over the public’s tax dollars. Each time a ticket is assessed and handled administratively or through a summons and court docket, it costs tax dollars.<p>"A crucial duty of a journalist is to serve the public interest by acting as a watchdog on government and business," according to Investigative Reporters and Educators, a journalism organization.<p>"It seems to be a story to me," said Bob Steele, director since 1989 of the ethics program at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think-tank in St. Petersburg, Fla.<p>"The first question you have to ask is why he has so many tickets? Does he have a disability that requires him to park close by? Does he have an ongoing battle with the police department?<p>"If there is a reason, then clearly this demands a response from the publisher and editor at the paper. Are they aware of it? Do they condone it? Have they tried to get his name off the docket? Is there a battle with the city or does he not give a [crap]?"<p>***Thank God they got something from Poynter.

Wonder if the cops aren't harassing this guy. In any case, how can someone making the piddly salary I imagine Gannett is paying him afford more than $5,000 in tickets?<p>[ August 05, 2003: Message edited by: jmcg ]</p>