St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones continues to adapt operations of the city’s Traffic Division to help limit the spread of COVID-19 by limiting public interaction with her staff and with parking meters, surfaces that can harbor the novel coronavirus.
On Thursday, April 2 she extended the period when parking meters will be free and no parking tickets will be written through April 22, the current sunset date for Mayor Lyda Krewson’s Stay at Home order for the city.
Parking penalties will be frozen through May 15, Jones announced, and all hearings for parking ticket adjudication will be rescheduled.
“This is in direct response to the region’s order to shelter in place and the national social distancing guidelines,” Jones in a statement.
“Therefore, I am extending the freeze on parking payments and tickets for the health and wellbeing of my staff and all St. Louisans. I had a long career in public health before I ran for public office, and I believe suspending this activity contributes to flattening the curve and preventing the spread of the coronavirus.”
Jones earned a Master’s degree in Health Administration from the Saint Louis University School of Public Health.
Jones is taking additional precautions for other aspects of her office as well. All departments have implemented skeleton crew and work-from-home plans. Offices and garages are being thoroughly cleaned with numerous precautions. All in-person Office of Financial Empowerment events through April are postponed, including College Kids events.
“These efforts will limit human contact and the spread of coronavirus, while also helping people through an economically difficult period,” Jones stated.
Jones began to take precautions before Krewson and St. Louis County Executive Sam Page announced the Stay at Home orders that took effect in the region on March 23. On March 16, five days before those orders were announced, Jones first suspended ticketing people for parking infractions “to limit the spread of COVID-19,” she stated.
For taking this proactive move, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch attacked Jones in an editorial.
“Regardless of the motive, where was her legal authority to make this unilateral declaration?” the Post-Dispatch editorialized. “Her spokesman, Benjamin Singer, was unable to cite a specific statute but asserted that ‘prosecutors, judges, police, etc. exercise discretion within their authority.’ Jones, he added, ‘has discretion, and these are extraordinary circumstances.’ Judges, police, mayors and, yes, even treasurers are bound by the laws as written. They might have the best of intentions, but the coronavirus outbreak is not a license for officials to do as they please.”
The Post-Dispatch has not yet attacked Jones for extending her public health precautions.
“We are in uncertain times,” Jones stated, “and the last thing people should be concerned about right now is feeding a meter or paying a parking ticket.”
Jones is broadcasting on Facebook Live every Tuesday and Thursday at 12:30 p.m. to provide information on financial resources and more at Facebook.com/STLTreasurer. Several pandemic resources are also available online at www.stlofe.org.
