Here's one part of what professional parking management looks like: 10,000 letters for overdue parking tickets

A total of 10,105 people now know that the city of Cedar Rapids' memory is better than they thought.

The number, 10,105, is the number of letters that have gone out recently to vehicle owners who owe the city money for unpaid parking tickets, with some of the violations stretching back to 2007.

Jon Rouse, Republic Parking System general manager in Cedar Rapids, said on Friday that the city would take in some $250,000 if everyone who received a letter paid their outstanding overdue parking tickets.

Rouse noted that the city's parking system currently is operating in the red, in part, because of reduced monthly rates in the downtown parking ramps put in place by the City Council after the June 2008 flood. Unpaid parking tickets haven't helped the bottom line either, he said.

“Part of this is an effort to collect some revenues that are outstanding and, hopefully, get the system back in working order,” Rouse said.

A regular meter violation is $7.50 with a $5 late fee if not paid within 30 days. Ten days later, the violation can be sent to a collection agency, which is what the recent letters point out. Rouse, though, said he is anticipating a second notice to violators before calling in the collection agency.

It was back in August when the city, with the backing of the Downtown District, decided the city's parking operation needed professional management firm Republic Parking System to run the city's downtown parking operation.

Republic's recent flurry of letters on behalf of the city actually represents a second round of letters to meter violators. Back in November, Rouse sent out some 4,000 letters to those who had at least five outstanding violations, vehicle owners whom he called parking “scofflaws.”

The city ordinance allows the parking system to tow vehicles whose owners have five unpaid tickets, but fewer than 15 of those 4,000 or so violators have seen their vehicles towed off the street to date, Rouse reported.

The tows, he said, come when a new ticket is issued and the enforcement officer notes an excessive number of unpaid tickets.

Rouse said the city had more than 200,000 unpaid parking tickets with unpaid fines of three-quarters of a million dollars on its books reaching back years when Republic took over the parking system management in August.

In a third round of letters to come, Rouse said his office will send out another 10,000 letters in small increments in an effort to collect on unpaid parking tickets that are several years old.

Some who have not responded to the earlier rounds of letters, he noted, have died since getting the parking tickets.