Custodians pull double duty as ticket-writers

by Hillary Copsey
Senior City Writer

Every two hours, Tim Sheridan stops his work as a custodian at the city building and heads to the city parking garage. He is not taking a break but is completing another facet of his job — writing parking tickets.

Since the city installed the parking meters in the garage in September, custodians have patrolled for expired meters after regular parking meter attendants go off duty at 6 p.m., said Ray Hazlett, Athens assistant safety-service director. Athens City Council authorized city building custodians to write tickets only for expired meters in the garage.

“People want to leave cars overnight, and that’s not the purpose of the garage,” said Councilwoman Carol Patterson, D-2nd ward.

On an average weeknight, Sheridan said he and two other custodians write nearly 35 tickets — and take about three hours away from their regular duties. The weekend means 50 to 60 tickets and even more time from their night. On Saturdays, only one custodian patrols the garage.

“It’s aggravating because we have to come over here every two hours,” Sheridan said.

But with the aggravation comes a pay increase. Custodians are listed as A1 employees and receive a wage of $11.31 per hour, City Auditor Jimmy Stewart said. City building custodians authorized to write parking tickets in the garage are classified as A2 employees with an 80-cent per hour increase in their wage.

The city hires custodians for the city building as A1 employees but changes their status to A2 after a 120-day probation period, Stewart said. Just one of the three custodians is listed as A2, but two more will change their status in the next two weeks, he said. Only custodians in the city building are permitted to write tickets and are listed as A2 employees.

All of these wages come from the city’s general fund, Stewart said. Because of this, the garage’s only costs are for repairs and other maintenance. Before the meters, parking attendants’ salaries came from the garage fund.

Since January, the city has collected about $13,000 from the meters. Though this is slightly lower than revenue from the garage in January 2001, Stewart said he expects the garage’s revenue to increase as the garage’s costs decrease.

If a parking space were filled all day, the meter would collect about $18, said Randy Fulks, parking meter maintenance administrator. Spaces are not filled 24 hours each day, but with no salaries to pay and money also coming from tickets, revenue adds up qui