Parking citation bill error fixed

Around 300 people got quite a shock in their mail recently when they opened notices from UW Transportation Services indicating they owed a couple thousand dollars for paying parking tickets late or for not paying at all.

Those who had multiple tickets were assessed even more. In the cases where violators had paid their fines, but had forgotten to pay the late fee, the notice should have indicated the balance due was $5-$10 per citation.

In all of the cases, says Transportation Services director Lance Lunsway, these were second past-due notices. The first letters sent out had the correct amount due.

Last week’s letters were all a mistake, says Lunsway. A computer glitch is believed to have caused the problem when the file was transferred to be mailed. He says the computer file has been fixed, and letters correcting the error were sent out Jan. 26.