The Bill for a Charitable Action

by Cecil Bothwell, Asheville City Council Member

As you may have seen on TV or in the daily paper, when the parking fee system failed at the Buncombe County parking deck downtown following the Mountain Moral Monday event, I jumped in to remedy the problem.

Cars had already been backed up, stopped dead in their tracks, for more than 45 minutes (with no end in sight). A parking attendant was making slow progress helping folks check out—one by one by one.* Folks who contacted me after the fact said that the attendant was even having trouble with the machine.

I decided to use my free pass, [issued by the county to council members], to remedy the problem, allowing 64 cars to exit via the “employees only” exit. Calculated at a two-minute delay per vehicle, that saved people in the back of the line an estimated two hours of wait time.

Well, Republican Commissioner Mike Fryar and GOP activist Chad Nesbitt have decided to make a stink about my unclogging effort, calling it “larceny” and even going to the Asheville Police Department and the District Attorney in an attempt to file charges. (No luck there for Mike and Chad. No harm, no foul.)

But they have prodded the County to send me a bill for 64 cars at $8 apiece ($512 – the price charged for a lost parking ticket), which assumes that every trapped car I released had been there all day.

I’m completely willing to take responsibility for my charitable action, though I think the bill is unreasonably high. If you agree, email [email protected].

Several people have offered to pitch in to help pay. Can you help? $8 pays for one ticket. You can send a check to Bothwell for Buncombe, POB 1877, Asheville, NC 28802. Thanks for your support.

*The obvious solution would be for the County to do what the City always does, and charge a flat fee for parking at the entrance when major events are scheduled. Then you simply leave the exit gates open.

Visit Cecil Bothwell at www.bothwell2013.com