In downtown Fort Lauderdale, private parking lots appear to be designed to confuse users into thinking they're public.
The lots have machines to make it easy for users to pay and go, which are similar to the city parking lot signs, but the fine print warns it is a privately run lot. Users are complaining about getting tickets that are designed to look like official citations with pictures of the car.
“It looks like they’re legitimately city or county tickets, and people are then threatened if they don’t pay that it’s going to go on to their credit,” Broward County Commissioner Mark Bogen said. “They should not be given out citations that look like they’re from law enforcement.”
Broward County has received about a dozen complaints, and Bogen is determined to put an end to the practice because “it’s a scam.”
Commissioners voted unanimously to pass an ordinance that makes it “unlawful for any person, including a parking facility operator, or agent to issue a private ticket to a motor vehicle or to the owner of any such vehicle.”
“I tell them not to pay,” Bogen said.