In another case, an elderly carer looking after a husband with Parkinson’s disease had accidentally displayed an out-of-date permit. In both instances they took their valid permits straight to the council and sought a review of the fines. Yet on these and a number of other occasions, the council refused to overturn the fines, despite each recipient being legally entitled to use the parking space. Ombudsman Deborah Glass said the council’s practices were lacking in fairness and discretion when compared with five other metropolitan councils. “A little compassion is needed when you are dealing with an 80-year-old whose wife is dying of cancer or a pensioner whose husband has Parkinson’s disease,” Ms Glass said.

“Fair systems of public administration need thoughtful exercise of discretion, not blanket rules, rigidly applied.” Vojislav Potulic with the valid permit on display. Credit:Damjan Janevski Yarraville pensioner Vojislav Potulic, 80, said he was under severe stress and short on sleep with his wife dying of lung cancer when he forgot to display their disability parking permit on a trip to Highpoint shopping centre. “I couldn’t sleep, I was looking after all my wife’s needs and I went into Highpoint to buy her some things and when I got back the ticket was there and I realised I forgot to put the permit on the dashboard,” he said. “They treat people like they are just dogs; they are just looking to get money.”

Teresa Salerno was similarly fined for parking in a disabled car parking space without displaying a valid parking permit. The 68-year-old aged pensioner, whose husband’s mobility is considerably limited by Parkinson’s disease, accidentally displayed an expired disabled parking permit and was fined $159. Despite showing the council a parking permit valid until 2020, the review was unsuccessful. She said that living on $300 a fortnight made it financially very difficult for them to pay the fine. “I’m a pensioner and I just couldn’t afford it, but they just had no pity in any way,” she said. “I got so upset, this happened on Father’s Day.”

While the Ombudsman’s report, tabled in Parliament on Monday, focused on parking infringements, the council has previously come under fire for its handling of $295 fines for late pet registration. Shifrah Blustein, a lawyer with western suburbs community legal centre Westjustice, said the council’s “callous and inflexible” infringements review process is part of an alleged drive to raise revenue at any social cost. “Maribyrnong Council budgets for substantial income from fines each year, whereas many other councils do not rely on fines revenue at all in their budgets,” she said. “It was clear from the cases we were seeing that the council’s approach to reviewing infringements was overly rigid, unfair and driven by revenue raising rather than consideration of a person’s circumstances.” Maribyrnong Council switched all of its paid parking meters in central Footscray and Yarraville village off in 2015, following a relentless campaign against the introduction of paid parking by Yarraville traders.

The saga, which resulted in an assault on two of the councillors at the end of a fiery council meeting, has been costing the council an estimated $200,000 in lost revenue each month. Loading Total losses are now approaching $6 million. Ms Blustein said the council has consistently refused to change its practices, so the legal centre went to the Ombudsman. “We have heard countless stories of clients forgoing buying food and medicine to pay unfair fines issued by Maribyrnong.

“These are mostly elderly disabled pensioners entitled to park in disabled parking spots who have to find money from their limited income to pay an unfair fine.” Westjustice chief executive Denis Nelthorpe accused the council of lacking compassion. “What really stood out for us was that those complainants were all vulnerable people who were deserving of reasonable consideration,” he said. “If these particular clients weren't able to satisfy the review, then nobody would.” Maribyrnong Council argues they are worried about misuse of disability parking permits, but the Ombudsman found this contradictory because the people being fined for parking in disabled spots were entitled to park there.

The Ombudsman has recommended the council update its guidelines for internal review, implement training for all staff on good administrative decisions and exercising discretion and make ex gratia payments to five individuals whose cases the report considered. Maribyrnong Council chief executive Stephen Wall said while the council believes the report “oversimplifies and unfairly represents” its review procedures, it will implement the Ombudsman’s first two recommendations. “Working with Fines Victoria and with other inner city councils, we will update our guidelines for the internal review of disability parking infringements and train staff as recommended,” he said. But the Council is refusing to budge on refunding four of the five fines that were recommended for overturning. Mr Wall said there is no legal basis to follow the third recommendation to refund any amounts or compensate the individuals concerned.

“All of these matters have been finalised, either by payment of the original infringement or after being upheld in the Magistrates' Court and we will seek further legal advice.”