Best-kept parking secret in Vero Beach could set you back $100 | Laurence Reisman

Laurence Reisman | Treasure Coast Newspapers

Show Caption Hide Caption Video: Parking enforcement in downtown Vero Beach Vero Beach parking enforcement officer John Makolin spends his day marking tires of vehicles parked downtown and beachside. He writes tickets to those who stay beyond their allotted time. COLLEEN WIXON/TCPALM

It might just be the best-kept secret in Vero Beach.

Roxanne Zoffer, unfortunately, knows all about it.

It’s not the Zumba Fitness, Pilates, or butts and guts classes she takes or teaches at 10 a.m. or 2 p.m. weekdays at Studio 14 in downtown Vero Beach.

It’s not her favorite parking spot on the west side of 14th Avenue in front of Blue Agave restaurant.

It’s Section 74-42 in the city code.

You know that one, right?

I asked folks in our downtown newsroom and only Colleen Wixon knew about the rule. Why? She drove around for a few hours last year with John Makolin, the city’s parking enforcement officer, for a TCPalm story.

Earlier this month, Zoffer wrote the city a check for $102 after being cited for “interference with overtime parking enforcement.”

In other words, Zoffer was accused of one of two things:

Deliberately wiping chalk off her tires Makolin tapped on to keep track of the city’s three-hour parking limit downtown.

Moving a vehicle “within a parking space to erase, obscure, alter or remove the mark placed on the tire of a parked vehicle by a parking enforcement officer so as to interfere with the enforcement of the overtime parking regulations.”

Most of us know doing these two things is wrong. Vero Beach Police Capt. Kevin Martin said several years ago, a merchant was caught using a washcloth and bucket of water to eliminate the signs of chalk marks from his employees’ tires at his beachside business.

MORE: Increased enforcement helps Vero Beach police parking issues

Zoffer says she didn’t commit either infraction of the aforementioned city code.

Her three-ticket parking odyssey lasted almost nine months. In late October, she received a letter from the city claiming she owed $204 for two unpaid tickets issued Sept. 29 and Oct. 9.

She later learned she was cited after going home for lunch following her morning class, then parking in the same spot for her afternoon class.

The city voided the tickets. Zoffer, who said the $204 (including $2 in late fees for each ticket) would not have broken her, learned a lesson: Don't leave, then park in the same spot.

Zoffer got another letter in June saying she had not paid a $100 ticket for the same infraction issued at 3:01 p.m. Oct. 27, days before she met with police on the first tickets.

She was upset. She took her case all the way to Police Chief David Currey, but he declined to void the ticket.

“This was an outlier I didn’t know existed,” she said, citing the unfairness of voiding two tickets but not the third. “They are saying I’m a liar.”

Police shared with me pictures of Zoffer’s car clearly parked in the same spot. It was impossible to tell whether the car was in identical positions each time the parking officer showed up.

“People need to be aware you can’t park in the same spot,” she said. “Call me a creature of habit. I like the same spot. It’s like being a little kid and sitting in the same seat.”

Parking again in the same parking spot? It might not be technically illegal — it’s your word against the parking officer’s — but it’s the most expensive of three arcane city parking violations many people might not know.

MORE: Vero Beach should see how Stuart solved parking problems without meters

The other two:

A $20 fine for parking over the line between spaces.

A $30 fine for backing into angled parking.

As I’ve noted before, and as Zoffer can attest, the city’s parking enforcement operation is antiquated — especially if it wants to limit parking by employees who get around the rules by moving their cars every three hours.

In downtown Stuart, a parking officer electronically scans license plates. The officer easily knows whether a vehicle has been downtown more than three hours.

In Vero Beach, I often park in the courthouse garage or east of Pocahontas Park. Most days, I don’t like being interrupted every three hours. I also don’t want to have to remember which spot I had before I went to lunch.

If we are going to have rules like this, they should be publicized better. I hope Zoffer's story helps.

She said she’s changed her habit, much like a downtown business owner she spoke with.

“I didn’t really pay that much attention to where I park,” she said. “I do now.”

This column reflects the opinion of Laurence Reisman. Contact him via email at larry.reisman@tcpalm.com, phone at 772-978-2223, Facebook.com/larryreisman or Twitter @LaurenceReisman.