The City, and Byron Brown, had a chance to not only fix a problem, but to do the “right” thing. It didn’t happen. Yes, a new system of checks was put into place to prevent Police Officers like Milton J. Jeffries from bilking people by writing phony $40 towing charges on parking tickets. Has any action been taken against Officer Jeffries yet?

Mayor Brown had a chance to at least right this abuse of power by refunding the $40 charge to people who already paid it. Instead, he chose to hide behind the legal opinion of the City Attorney that the people, who had already paid the fine, had waived their legal right to dispute the charge by paying it. Yes, legally it is correct. Is it right? NO! The mayor could have made the decision to reimburse the money. It is decisions like that which show the moral character of our Mayor. Instead of using the “waived their legal rights” argument, Mayor Brown should have applied a balancing test - How many people can afford to take time off of work to dispute a $40 fee that was wrongly assessed by the City???