Man feeding parking meter gets fined for harassment.

February 8, 2010

By Kimberly West
Oregon Herald staff reporter

EUGENE, Ore. -- Ben Bond from Eugene pleaded not guilty to obstruction of government or judicial administration in municipal court this past week involving parking meters. Or perhaps the fine was for talking too loud.

"I was just trying to keep a couple people from getting tickets," said Bond. He said he witnessed a parking officer preparing to write a ticket for a car parked in downtown, so he fed the meter.

Melinda Kletzok with the Eugene Police Department said officers cited Benjamin Bond on suspicion of Harassment and Obstructing a Government Agency. Police were called to the scene because the meter enforcement officer felt she was being harassed -- not because Bond was plugging meters full of money, Kletzok said.

Kletzok said a parking control officer was in the middle of writing a parking citation when Bond came up and put money in the meter. The parking officer continued writing the citation anyway and put it on the car. The parking officer told city police Bond got upset, got in his car and followed the officer for several blocks while screaming out the window.

The officer called police, who arrived and cited Bond.

"The parking control officer has worked dutifully in this job for 12 years," City Manager Jon Ruiz wrote. "In those years, she has rarely, if ever, felt her safety to be in jeopardy like she felt yesterday.  I personally spoke with her this morning and she was still upset and visibly shaken by the encounter. It is wrong and intolerable for any City employee to be intimidated, threatened and prevented from doing his or her work on behalf of City of Eugene citizens."

Laura Hammond, the community outreach coordinator with the City's Parking Services Department, said that while you're not supposed to plug other people's meters in Eugene, their officers do not enforce it.

But wasn't the guy just doing another driver a favor by feeding the meter? A woman naked Sarah who declined to give her last name, said she was a witness to the incident, that she heard Bond talking out his window but that he was not screaming. "From what I saw, I think the meter maid gets easily frustrated or the city just wants to push their weight around. They wanted to fine him (Bond) so they found some charge. They didn't like what he did so they found a way to punish him. That's the police here in Eugene for you."