What a WASTE!!!

I have been researching an issue regarding parking. This is the issue I referred to in the earlier post that Risa and Nancy helped me with. We have had an agreement with a "parking" company for many years to allow jurors to park in certain parking lots that were not owned by the county. The "parking" company allowed us to utilize these spaces at the rate of one dollar per car per day.

One of the parking lots was purchased when we purchased the Courthouse Annex building at 200 E. Ferguson in 2001. Well guess what? We have continued paying this company for parking on our own lot ever since!!! I'm livid! I have a copy of a letter that was mailed to the company on June 19, 2002 giving notice of our intent to terminate that portion of the lease effective July 24, 2002, but they continued to bill us -- and we continued to pay!

I'm not sure how much we've paid over the years, but I'll find out. I do know this: we paid a lot of money in recent months.

December 2007 - $942
November 2007 - $939
October 2007 - $1569
September 2007 - $624
August 2007 - $1359
July 2007 - $1138

This is just insane. Another interesting tidbit - the contract says that the company will maintain the parking lots. Yeah right! Have you seen the main juror parking lot? Until I asked Physical Plant about it, it had not been maintained. The lights didn't work. It had not been resurfaced or swept in years. You could barely see the stripes. Vines covered the chain link fences, and shrubs and trees were growing up through the fence in several locations.

Our Road & Bridge and Physical Plant Departments went the extra mile in December and January to clean up the lot, and it now looks great!

So, this issue is going to be addressed. I plan to have our legal counsel write a demand letter requesting a refund of all money that we've paid them since July 24, 2002 plus interest.

In researching this issue, I've discovered that it is hard to find good historical documentation of contracts and related revisions. This needs to be addressed. In fact, it was difficult to find documentation of our ownership of the parking lot in question.

Anyway, I know it is relatively small, but I feel good about wrapping up the week this way. I want to see them send us a $100,000 check (estimate only).