Designated Driver Shuttle employees nearly went on strike last week over an ongoing parking dispute with the Department of Public Safety.
DDS employees said on Oct. 10 they began receiving $35 tickets for parking their personal vehicles in a lot next to their EMU office while they worked. The problem is now resolved, but it caused considerable headaches for the employees.
The Designated Driver Shuttle, which provides free late-night rides home to students, operates from 10 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. seven days a week. No parking is allowed on campus from midnight to five a.m. However, DDS employee Stephanie Strahan said DDS has never had problems before with parking in the lot.
“Never in the three years I have been here has parking been an issue,” Strahan wrote in an e-mail, “and no one in our office was made aware that it was going to become one now.”
Strahan said she was told DPS captain Herb Horner, who is charge of the parking, was responsible for the crackdown and was the only person who could grant DDS employees an exemption. However, Strahan said they had trouble reaching Horner and mediating the situation. In the meantime, DDS employees continued to be ticketed.
“They continued to ticket us, even when we called in each night to ask them not to, because ‘rules are rules,’” Strahan wrote. “We offered to give them our license plate numbers, write notes on our cars even come in each night and tell them personally where we’d be. Each time we did this we were met with a resounding ‘no’ and told we could do nothing but contact Mr. Horner.”
DPS Sgt. Lonnie Ekstrom said the issue was finding a solution that allowed DPS to positively identify the employees’ cars. However, Strahan said the safety concerns should trump parking rules.
“Walking six blocks by ourselves to our cars at 3 a.m. is not something the Department of Public Safety should endorse, especially when a lot is available feet from our office door,”
Strahan wrote.
Some other campus services have late-night privileges. For example, campus radio station KWVA, which is on-air 24/7, has two designated parking spots next to the EMU. Volunteers and staff members need only display a KWVA parking tag to use the spots, day or night. However, KWVA pays for the spots out of its annual budget.
DDS codirector Andy Bryn said the shuttle service and DPS finally reached an agreement last week. DDS will make special parking permits that, after being approved by DPS, will allow them to park late at night.
“It took a bit longer than we would have liked,” said Bryn. “But DPS has been cooperative, and now we have a solution.”
Bryn also said the parking tickets will be waived and DDS employees are no longer considering a strike. However, in a phone interview Strahan said some employees were still ticketed over the weekend.
With a resolution reached, Ekstrom that if employees are still being ticketed, “they shouldn’t be.”
“We’re so limited on parking on campus that we have to keep a close eye on it, but that doesn’t mean we’re not open to solutions,” Ekstrom said.
University media relations said Herb Horner was out of town for the week and
unavailable for comment.
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