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City of Aspen drops its pursuit of Precise

 

  A year after a parking scam debacle in the city of Aspen was uncovered, the municipal government has given up on trying to get some of the money it lost. Aspen Public Radio’s Carolyn Sackariason reports.

In 2014, it was discovered people were abusing parking meters, and duping the city out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Officials claim they were lied to by the company that sold them faulty pay stations. The city’s parking department thought the company, Precise Park, was flagging debit cards with zero balances when they were processed at the end of each day.

It turns out the company wasn’t blacklisting those cards because of changes in the credit card industry. That left city officials in the dark about people using zeroed out prepaid debit cards to buy parking.

The parking director at the time told his superiors Precise assured him blacklisting was allowed. But it couldn’t have because industry laws prevent that

Because Precise had a fiduciary responsibility to the city as its client, the city manager earlier this year said he was considering suing the Canada-based company. That position has since changed. Jim True is the city attorney.

“I was not asked to file a complaint. When various members in the city investigated the information we just never felt we had sufficient information to file a claim against Precise itself,” he says.

Meanwhile, the police investigation to find the offenders is considered a cold case, and the faulty pay stations have been replaced.

Carolyn Sackariason, Aspen Public Radio news.