Parking tickets. They happen. I may or may not have just spent more than the actual value of my car to pay off old parking tickets that had, like fine wine, aged and appreciated in value. back in the day I didn’t have a spot of my own downtown and was constantly doing the dance of moving my car to and fro- and it was a parking ticket disaster. If you’ve made similar mistakes and have similar gazzillions of dollars in parking tickets hanging over your head- there might be a way to WORK off the tickets by volunteering. Here are some tips from Justin Mayfield of Local Life:
1. Get a court date for your ticket. For multiple tickets it’s worth going into the county city building, up the 6th floor, and asking the clerk for a court date for all the tickets associated with your license plate number.
2. At your court date, ask for community service. Definitely mention that it would help your pocket book if you could do community service. They will give you a date by which you must complete your community service with an approved agency.
Local Life is an approved agency, (i’m on the board!) and they do a lot of fun interesting projects in Tacoma and are a great place to work off your tickets. You can call Local Life at (253) 242 3095. ”
There are lots of ways to work off your tickets with Local Life (depending on your skill set). Distributing posters, writing blog posts, graphic design, participating in the planning committee for a Local Life event, collecting stories of good work done in your hood, work on a project for your neighborhood, volunteering at an event and helping to promote events. If none of this appeals, you can always help clean up your neighborhood by picking up trash. Something for everyone! The court allows $10 to be worked off for every hour. When you are done with your service, Local Life will write a letter to the court for you to have your hours credited! Justin Mayfield, Local Life Tacoma
Of course, there are a lot of other worthy places that are approved agencies for working off parking tickets- you may already even be volunteering! Check the list. Pro tip: when you go into your court date, ask to have the fine reduced as well as asking for community service. They will often have pity on your poor soul and give you both!
