Here’s an excerpt from my discussion with Marion Brooks on my appearance on The Talk, this past Sunday.
Now, some random thoughts, links and stories about last week’s frozen meter mishap.
UPDATE: LAZ source claims 80% of the meters were frozen
Just communicated with a source at LAZ. They revealed that 80% of the pay boxes were frozen at some point during the two cold days last week, which is even higher than our estimates. In fact, LAZ maintenance crews were working round the clock to deal with the problem.
2%? Hah!
Frozen credit cards
I was talking to a friend at a holiday party on Saturday who also ran across a bunch of frozen meters last week.
In fact, when she went to use her credit card on one machine, the card froze in the meter slot.
“I had to run into a local store and borrow a pliers to get my card out,” she said. “Then, later on, when I went to park on Clark St. in Lincoln Park to have lunch with friends, none of my friends and I could find a working (non-frozen) parking meter. It was crazy.”
PEAs not alerted
One of our trustworthy PEA contributors tells this website that Dept. of Revenue management NEVER alerted PEAs in the field of the problems being reported with the frozen pay boxes. According to my source, “We did not get any alerts or messages (either thru our supervisors or Nextels) concerning issues with the pay boxes.”
Most PEAs only found out about the issue when they came back to HQ after their shift had ended.
One would think that this issue, effecting at least some percentage of parking meters, would have been an important piece of information to share with the people writing tickets for expired meters that day.
LAZ, city, blow it again
You know, I’m more amused by the frozen meter issue than angry.
But I am pissed off at the city’s and LAZ’s response to the issue.
Both entities tried to brush the issue under the rug by saying only 2% of the meters were affected. Of course this was total BS.
But, if LAZ knew about the issue late Wednesday, why didn’t they just get in front of the story and contact the media with the news? Don’t you think most people would have been somewhat understanding if they were told in advance of the problem and how to handle it? Instead, LAZ gets caught with their pants down, running from the media spotlight and looking like they’re trying to hide something.
And another thing (or two)
This didn’t hit me until a few days after the temperatures went up and the problem went way, at least temporarily.
But think about this.
The city and LAZ, trying to downplay the whole incident, totally ignored this point.
If a single-head meter went down due to winter weather, only once parking space would be affected.
However, if one pay box goes down, it affects 8-10 spaces on average. The scope of this problem was much larger than the city wanted to admit.
In addition, none of the so-called “real” journalists even questioned the 2% figure that was quoted in all their news reports. It was just reported as fact. All these “reporters” had to do was walk down a street with pay boxes and check to see if they were frozen. Believe me, they would have found more than 2%.
And why didn’t anyone ask the DOR or the mayor what the failure rate of traditional parking meters were when the temperatures got so cold?
Thanks!
Big thanks to Steve Rhodes of the NBC Chicago website and proprietor of The Beachwood Reporter, who was the only other writer in town questioning the city’s 2% allegation.
Dennis Byrne weighs in
Local columnist Dennis Byrne had some thoughts on the frozen meters saying, “My life in Chicago dates back to the early 1940s, and I don’t believe I’ve ever encountered a frozen parking meter. More often I’d encounter one that just didn’t work. Something tells me a lot of other people have had the same experience.”
Here’s Byrne’s full column, “Mayor Daley, meet ex-mayor Bilandic.”
Anti-freeze crews on the street
I’ve seen more than a few LAZ crews these past few days, armed with de-icer sprays, checking pay b0xes to make sure they’re all working correctly. Good job.
City of Toronto sued for $26 million over frozen meters
In Toronto, another city with harsh winters, a local woman has filed a class action lawsuit over a ticket she was given after her frozen pay and display meter wouldn’t print her receipt. Her attorneys estimated 112,500 people have been ticketed because of frozen meters in Toronto since 1998.
Of course, we wouldn’t want to give anyone in Chicago any ideas.
Posted in 
Oh, please let someone file a class action lawsuit!
Great article Geek. You really hit a number of nails on the head. As someone who has spent plenty of time in public relations, it is amazing to watch companies like LAZ violate one of the foundational tenants of dealing with the public. Don’t lie, because the truth will always come out, and then no one will ever believe you again. Simple, but oh-so-true. When a company screws up, the course of action that has been proven most effective time and time again is also simple. Take responsibility for the screw up, tell the public everything you know about the screw up, tell them you are sorry, tell them how you are going to fix it and then…FIX IT.
If LAZ (and the mayor) had followed those very basic steps, they would have improved, at least a little, their standing in the eyes of the people of this city. People wouldn’t be thrilled, but they would at least know that they are dealing with an upfront organization that takes responsibility for their errors. Instead, they have just proven themselves as liers.
I’m flashing back to my professor for Critical Strategies in Corporate Public Relations…he just kept telling us over and over that being honest is the key to a company successfully managing a crisis. The ways LAZ have screwed up are textbook examples of bad PR.
Regarding a class-action lawsuit on parking tickets, I’m waiting to hear back from Dept. of Revenue on an FOIA request for parking tickets issued and paid or followed-up on (i.e. turned to collections) for “impossible” parking ticket scenarios (i.e. motorcycle/scooter in residential zone, handicapped meter violations, no front-plate on cars from states that don’t require them, tinted windows on cars with non-IL registrations or with “WT” plates, etc.)
DOR is well past their 7-day limit to respond, but I’m guessing that I may have found a smoking gun…
Well……….I can tell you……that you are dealing……… with one of the old-time bureaucracy………I know that. I mean……it takes time…….
Hey KC,
I too, have a background in journalism/media/marketing/PR.
I find LAZ’s strategy dealing with bad news to be a case study in incompetence.
I think, if LAZ had gone to the media WITH the story and handled it like you outlined, it wouldn’t have been anywhere nearly as big of a story. And, I think, people would have been generally understanding or at least, less outraged.
CPM is actually like a mini-utility like People’s Gas or ComEd.
What does ComEd do when they have an outage? They get in front of it, tell the media how many households are without power and get on the air explaining how they are handling it.
Wham, bam, thank you ma’am.
One you control the message, that 2% number may have actually worked…we’ll maybe not with me.
Swear to God, LAZ needs to hire the Geek to do an extreme makeover on their image. It really wouldn’t be difficult. The Geek’s going annual billing rate is not even six figures.
I know nothing about class action lawsuits (or any lawsuits or law, for that matter). What does one do to file? What are the grounds?
1PBFoot, what is the smoking gun you are referring to? Are you thinking of filing? What can I do to help?
Let me know.
-John Adams
John Adams…
The smoking gun I’m referring to is whether or not the city is profiting from tickets being issued to people who DON’T commit infractions, but who don’t know any better (i.e. tourists) or don’t want to be inconvenienced (i.e. rich folks) and pay tickets that shouldn’t have been issued in the first place.
Many such situations fall under a “he said, she said” scenario (i.e. a ticket written for being too close to a crosswalk). But I started getting tickets for parking my scooter in a residential zone, despite MANY documents on the City of Chicago website saying that a permit wasn’t necessary. Then the whole mess with Feddor, the guy with plate “0″, having to spend time & money to defend himself for “impossible” ticket scenarios (i.e. “truck, rv, bus, or taxi on residential street” for a vehicle with passenger pages???) made me realize that this is not as isolated as we all think it is.
Of course, if I had paid the city for the illegally-issued “impossible”-scenario tickets, I would be out the $$$ and wouldn’t get a refund without taking the matter to court. Hence the FOIA request and my desire to file a class-action lawsuit… I want my time, postage, etc. back for even having to deal with this city’s bullshit.
The newest debacle is that tinted windows (35% all around, including the front windows) are LEGAL in Illinois as of 10/30/09, yet Chicago still continues to issue, AND COLLECT ON, $250 parking tickets. Second City Cop and others cite “home rule” in the Illinois constitution, but vehicle equipment (which window tint falls under, just like bumpers and turn signals) is specifically excluded from home rule. If cities or counties could make up such vehicle equipment rules, the city could ban all cars that are red or have V8 engines–yet Schaumburg could require that all cars be red…
Maybe a big loss in court or a big settlement would give them a reason to not have PEAs and cops that do a half-assed job in writing tickets… The city also has the capabilities to automatically throw out impossible scenarios (i.e. expired meter for those with “HCP” plates), but they choose not to…
I just need to find a lawyer interested in making a name for himself…
Found out today that during the big freeze….
Dept Managers were sending out nextel text messages to PEA’s in the field….but the messages were not getting to the pea’s Nextel’s.
Sources of mine at Ashland, DePaul and 95th/Jefferies all confirm that Nextels are not receiving texts.
We are supposed to get Amber alerts for that matter.
We are lucky if our batteries hold a charge in the nextels when it is belong 20. My 3 year old Razor phone has a better battery than the Piece of Chit nextel they issue us.
Good ol’ General Winter pulling a (literal) Cool Hand Luke with the pay boxes is hilarious. These boxes would be bad news in Fargo ND! Or Brainerd MN for that matter. If the boxes can’t tolerate a mere +5F they stand no chance at a good -10F. Add wind chill for flavour. Class action lawsuit? Bring it on. That should be hilarious.
You would have thought that someone in the city govrnment would have provided a weather specification. But it is clear it’s a case of poor management and lack of planning from start to finish.
[...] froze. The frozen buttons made those affected machines inoperable and gave the company another very public black eye. While the city and CPM officials tried to downplay the scope of the initial problem by saying [...]