Got a parking ticket in Myrtle Beach area? Private companies can’t issue them, suits say
Coastal South Carolina municipalities may soon have to rethink how they enforce their parking ordinances.
A series of lawsuits filed against Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach and others challenges the contracts these governments have with private sector companies to issue parking tickets and collect fines.
The complaints come months after the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office issued its opinion that parking enforcement, part of a municipality’s police powers, cannot be delegated to outside entities.
One of the lawsuits, filed with the state Supreme Court against North Myrtle Beach and Surfside Beach, noted that municipal employees told media outlets they planned to continue parking enforcement to private companies even after the AG’s opinion was released.
A spokesman for Myrtle Beach declined to comment on the pending litigation.
These are being presented as class action lawsuits. Attorney Gene Connell, who filed the complaints on behalf of various plaintiffs, told The Sun News he hasn’t received request from additional potential plaintiffs yet, but anyone who has received a parking ticket from one of these private companies enforcing public ordinances would qualify.
The goal of the litigation would be to stop the ongoing practice of contracting out these police powers and reimburse those fined as a result, Connell added.
The complaints emphasize that these public-private agreements violate the public’s right to due process, which would require the ability to appeal parking tickets to an independent judicial officer. Instead, accused violators are forced to appeal to the same private companies issuing the tickets, the suit alleges. Those companies are incentivized to collect fines because they are paid a portion of those proceeds, the complaints add.
The suits urge the courts to act quickly as these municipalities contains tens of thousands of residents and host millions of visitors each year as vacation destinations regularly bringing in millions of dollars in parking fines annually.
