Rough Draft of our Letter of Intent

I mentioned in the earlier post today that I'd update our Letter of Intent, and publish it here for comments or concerns. I reread it this afternoon, and I decided it was still pretty close to what we want, so here it is. Please feel free to comment, because the more we edit this together, the more it's OUR letter of intent, and not mine. It just seemed to make sense for someone to get the ball rolling.

To Whom it May Concern,

We would like to petition your support by informing you of a burgeoning social movement within your constituency. Our associates seek a fair settlement with the City of Baltimore to clear our names of violations apparently many years old, in some cases totaling thousands of dollars. We would also appreciate any attempt on your part to champion an end to the usurious regulations City Hall seeks to validate in exacting its interesting brand of social justice. A brief examination of our plight quickly reveals the gross neglect and moral injustice we feel has been perpetrated.

This March, 80,000 current and former citizens of Baltimore received notice from a private law firm to settle 183,000 parking violations worth, in their estimation, $132 million dollars. Many within our group were completely unaware that any violations had been accruing $16/month in delinquency fees, in some cases, for six years without prior notification. With the city requiring less proof for prosecution than it does for personal defense, we have been deemed guilty until proven innocent. Also, with many city judges wondering whether or not they have the right to waive our fines, even if an error can been proven, we find ourselves in judicial purgatory. During these troubling economic times, we consider it a personal affront that the City of Baltimore finds it perfectly natural to seek an average of $1,650 per person to expunge our records of crimes initially valued at $27.

We have discovered all too personally that no limit exists on how much a delinquent violation can be worth to the city. In a troubling turn of events, the city tacitly admitted their incompetence in executing their own guidelines by hiring an independent collection agency. Furthermore, this agency ostensibly proved the city’s ineptitude when they were able to efficiently contact 80,000 people in a matter of weeks. It is our opinion that with no incentive to settle these debts in a timely manner, the city married bureaucratic incompetence with socially irresponsible law to establish a license to print money.

Within the guidelines the city has set forth, one year of neglect concerning 183,000 violations would garner the city an obscene profit of $35,136,000. An amazing feat, considering this would represent more than half of the expected $60 million dollar deficit facing City Hall in 2010. Mayor Dixon’s administration has publicly stated our apparent transgressions represent a viable source of revenue to mitigate this shortfall, which we find comical, as complete compliance with their program would result in a $72 million dollar profit at our expense. However, when one examines the facts, creating $35 million dollars of imaginary revenue during one year of procrastination is not a daunting task, when your fee schedule approximates a one-year APR of 652%.

Consequently, we ask you to join us in achieving our two primary goals. First, for Baltimore to join the ranks of New York City, Chicago, Las Vegas, Birmingham, Greensboro, Lubbock, Fort Wayne, Kansas City, Detroit, Los Angeles, Denver, Albany, Raleigh, Atlanta, Orlando and numerous other counties and municipalities that have offered ticket amnesty programs to those with outstanding debt. We do not doubt the right of the city to exact fines and fees. However, we urge City Hall to exact their authority in a responsible manner as the aforementioned cities have chosen. We have recently discovered that the city has the ability to offer a two-day ticket amnesty every ten years; therefore, our request is not without precedent. In fact, the city of Chicago found their recent amnesty program so successful, it was extended a number of weeks due to the resounding public response and the financial gain afforded to the government without the added cost of lawsuits or private collection agencies.

Secondly, we ask that you use your influence to draft responsible legislation that would effectively close the loophole our city currently possesses to unduly tax its citizens. If the MVA cannot find itself beyond reproach due to the recent allegations of fake parking tickets and recycled license plates, then the populace that stands to suffer from its disorganization should be afforded the benefit of a limited fine structure. Sadly, from the logical standpoint of revenue creation, it is not in the short term interest of our government to end its current practices. Yet, philosophically, we hope you agree that a just government engenders a just populace, and it is our hope that you will join us in achieving this end.

As Americans, we forge a social contract with the government each time we bestow upon its members the responsibility of our rights, livelihood, and well-being in the form of a ballot. We feel this contract as been abused and violated, to the point where the city views its citizens as sources of income, rather than partners in the American experiment. After this embarrassing chapter in the history of our city is written, we hope it is your desire to count yourself among those who made a difference.