Bothwell says $512 parking bill 'clearly extreme'

Buncombe County government is billing City Councilman Cecil Bothwell $512 after he let more than 60 drivers leave the county parking garage for free as the nearby Mountain Moral Monday protest wound down Monday evening.

But Bothwell said Friday $512 is "clearly extreme" and he is not sure whether he will pay the amount requested because most people would have owed much less than the $8 per car fee the total is based on.

Bothwell said Thursday he used an electronic parking pass to allow cars to leave through a cardholder exit without paying because people were having difficulty with the public pay station for the garage. Cars backed up to the garage's fourth floor "with no forward motion" in what he called a "systemic failure."

County government gives councilmen free electronic parking passes for the garage, said Bothwell and County Manager Wanda Greene. City government also gives passes to county commissioners allowing them to use city garages for free.

An invoice from the county dated Friday asks Bothwell to pay $8 for each of 64 vehicles that parked in the county's parking garage on College Street. That's the amount the county charges when drivers lose their tickets and the maximum daily fee it charges for parking in the garage.

The invoice refers to the charge as a "lost ticket fee."

Bothwell had said Thursday that if the county sends him a bill, he would pay it. On Friday, he said, "I'll have to look at the bill before I can tell you for sure" whether he would pay the $512.

He said several people have expressed gratitude for his actions and offered to help pay charges from the county.

Greene said she is willing to discuss the issue of the proper amount with Bothwell: "I'm open to that and if I were him, I'd do that."

"We decided to bill him because he said on TV if we send him the bill, he'll pay it," she said.

Most people exiting the garage at that hour had only been in the garage a few hours and would not have had to pay $8 had they stayed in line for the garage pay station, Bothwell said.

Greene said Friday, "I can't argue with that. I think that would be the case, but we don't have a way to know that."

The bill reads: "Parking for Monday, August 4, 2014 64 parkers @ $8.00 (lost ticket fee)."

"Thank you for doing business with Buncombe County!" it reads at the bottom.

Bothwell let people leave using a different exit for holders of electronic parking passes.

He said a county worker appeared to be trying to help people use the pay station that takes cash and credit cards and that process was going very slowly.

If it took each person two minutes to get through the pay station, some drivers would have had to wait more than two hours to get out of the garage, Bothwell said.

Greene said the pay station had no mechanical problems.

Bothwell said the county should adopt the same policy as the city and charge a flat rate for parking during big events. That allows the city to simply lift garage exit gates, greatly speeding traffic leaving a garage.

Greene said the county does the same thing, but parking workers were apparently unaware of Mountain Moral Monday.

The event brought thousands of people to Pack Square Park, across the street from the garage. The event was held to protest many of the policies of Republican majorities in the state General Assembly and Republican Gov. Pat McCrory. Bothwell is a Democrat.

An electronic record of Bothwell's card usage provided by County Commissioner Mike Fryar says the card was used to let out as many as six cars a minute from 7:04 p.m. Monday to 7:32 p.m. The total number of vehicles that exited using the card was 64.

"How moral is this?" Fryar said. He said Bothwell's actions amount to

stealing from county taxpayers, and his criticism was not politically motivated.

"I'm sorry that people had trouble getting through the pay station. They're supposed to pay when they leave," he said.

"It's not (Bothwell's) prerogative to let people out. ... He is a city employee. He does not work for the county," Fryar said.

It is not clear how much Bothwell's actions cost the county. It costs $1 an hour to park in the garage with a daily maximum of $8.

Greene said Thursday the average charge for people using the garage that day was $3.50.

She said she plans to contact Bothwell about the issue and had not decided on a course of action beyond that.

While the county does not attach specific instructions when it gives the cards to councilmen, Greene said, it would not expect them to use the cards to let large numbers of people park for free.

Greene said that if a member of the general public that rents a space in the garage uses his or her parking pass to let multiple vehicles out without paying, the county blocks the use of their pass. She was interviewed before Bothwell explained his actions to a reporter.

Bothwell said Thursday he would pay a bill for the unpaid parking charges if the county sends him one. "If that's what they deem appropriate, sure. I took it on myself," he said.

Fryar, a Republican, said he had attempted to contact District Attorney Ron Moore to have Bothwell charged criminally, calling the incident "larceny."

Bothwell said he simply intended to help solve a problem and to avoid having so many cars idling in line.

"This had nothing to do with the politics of the event," he said.

"It was on my card. It wasn't a secret," he said. "I was trying to facilitate undoing a traffic jam. I'd do the same thing for a tea party rally."

Staff writer Jon Ostendorff contributed to this report.