You put your money in the meter, but time expires, and a city parking enforcement officer gets there before you do.
Troubleshooter Marti Emerald Investigates The ticket says you owe $35, but if you pay it late it can more than double, or cause a lien to be put on your car registration. That's what happened to Joy and Daemon Connolly. Last year when they paid their car registration, there was a $60 lien for an unpaid parking ticket. Joy (pictured, right) paid the $60 fine to the DMV assuming that she had just missed paying a parking ticket, but the Troubleshooter learns that she's paid the city $60 for the same ticket. Joy's double payment is confirmed by an accountant hired to check city parking ticket records for a lawsuit. Jeffrey Porter, a CPA, reviewed two months of parking citations. During the months of January and February 2000, Porter found 927 overcharges totaling $58,823. Porter (pictured, left) is testifying for Arminia Peneflor. Peneflor says that she was fired from her San Diego City Parking Management clerk position because she refused to "lie or withhold information from citizens regarding money that the city owed them." Peneflor also says that she was told by supervisors not to tell the public about the overpayments so the money could be put in a "slush fund." And Peneflor (pictured, right) isn't the first to say City Parking Management has money problems. A surprise audit two years ago found:

• $616 in missing change
• $2,404 in cash and checks in a safe, gone undeposited for three months
• $7,700 in checks for parking permits, some checks also undeposited for three months

Last year, the downtown City Parking Management office was burglarized. $5,869 left in the safe over a weekend was stolen, despite the recommendation of the audit to "ensure all moneys collected are timely deposited." An audit conducted after the burglary concludes "weaknesses still exist" in city parking management, finding:

• $500 in missing change
• "Security and control over mail in payments is questionable"
• Parking permit money is "still not being deposited in a timely manner"
• "No inventory of $250,000 of unsold parking cards" in the office.

City parking officials deny that Penaflor was fired, deny withholding overpayments to the public, and say there is not a slush fund in the department. Instead, they say that Penaflor had a fundamental misunderstanding of their computer system. But Porter says that the department's own computer records show a pattern of accepting overpayments and not refunding money unless consumers realize it and ask for a refund. During the trial, the city produced more documents. Porter found that 87 percent show overpayments -- many of those to the DMV -- and that 85 percent of the overpayments have not been refunded. The attorney representing the clerk is filing a class action lawsuit on behalf of people who have been overcharged and have not received refunds. The trial continues next week.