(Source: AP via Google,  Fox Toledo, CSM & Toledo On the Move)

Image Courtesy: Auto Insane - Mayor Carty Finkbeiner

Often we have come across stories that involve strange politicians and sometimes even the stupidest one who make dumb decisions that will make you wonder what on earth was he/she thinking to do something like this.   We have one such pol from Ohio that beats everyone of them dumb politicians out there.

Some residents of Toledo, Ohio, are complaining that they received $25 tickets for parking their vehicles in their own driveways. Residents along North Holland-Sylvania Road were ticketed for parking in the gravel part of their driveways.   Toledo, Ohio Mayor Carty Finkbeiner (FINK’-by-ner), who is already up for a recall vote says he stands by the citations handed out last week by the Division of Streets, Bridges and Harbor. He says the tickets were issued under a city law against parking on unpaved surfaces, including gravel driveways. How can they do that? They just found an old law prohibiting drivers from parking on “unpaved” surfaces.. and technically gravel is unpaved.

During a news conference Monday, Finkbeiner ignored a reporter’s question of whether the crackdown and fines were related to the city’s budget crisis.

Although not outlined in the city charter, a city memo has allowed workers with the city of Toledo’s Division of Streets, Bridges and Harbor to issue parking citations to citizens.

It’s not as though Toledoans are hell-bent against paved driveways. It’s just that the decision to enforce a little known regulation is taking them by surprise. Take Charles Robertson, for example. He’s lived in the same house (with the same gravel driveway) for 43 years. He got his first ticket last week.

“I just can’t reach into my magic box of tricks and get 5 or 6 grand to pave my driveway,” he said.

Thankfully City Councilman Michael Collins disagrees with the tickets, calling them “Micky Mouse nonsense”. He has promised residents he’ll try to have the tickets recinded.

In a move that will make some of his residents happy, Collins has taken the tickets from residents and says he will pay for them. He also referred to the Finkbeiner administration as a psych ward. Collins says the city itself is in violation of the law because the city tow lot is only gravel.

After his fiasco, Mayor Finkbeiner can be assured that he wrote his own ticket for his recall vote. (Note the cars parked on gravel in the background of this story’s image).