Y. grad aims to 'boot' a parking aggravation

PROVO — Aaron Pacini is the Brigham Young University student who didn't go away, and that just could make him the catalyst to change a problem that affects thousands of students who park in off-campus apartment parking lots.

Three times in the past year, and five times overall, Pacini has come out to a parking lot to find a metal boot attached to one of his car's tires.

"One was my fault," he admitted. "I was 10 minutes over."

It's the four others that bother him. Once, he called the police and an officer persuaded the tow truck driver to remove the boot. But when the officer left, the driver told Pacini he'd have to pay him or the boot would stay.

Another time, Pacini was parked in the right spot at his complex, the Jamestown Condominiums but was booted anyway. Management cleared up the problem, but the very next day, a boot appeared again on Pacini's car.

He said most students aren't around long enough to protest, but he has continued to work from his apartment since he graduated in December.

So on Tuesday night, he took the problem to City Hall, where City Councilwoman Cynthia Dayton presented the issue to the rest of the Provo City Council in a study session. She announced she will prepare language to amend a city ordinance that she and Pacini find lacking.

"What we're trying to do here is fill some loopholes," Dayton said.

In fact, she thinks all three sides — students, landlords and enforcement agencies — should be considered victims of the ordinance.

The booting companies are retained by the landlords to enforce parking rules that protect tenants. But the ordinance is full of ambiguities.

The result: students suffer and the booting companies and landlords get a bad name when they are within the law, Dayton said.

The ordinance she wants the council to amend was written in 2001 by the council in reaction to "extreme predatory practices," she said.

"I have yet to talk to a tenant who has either not been booted or cannot tell you a story about someone who has been," she said. "That's the perceived scope of the problem."