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Woman Wins Battle Over Parked Trucks

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By ANTHONY CORMIER, Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: October 4, 2007

BRADENTON - All Patricia Thomas wanted was to run a business in the Village of the Arts.

But when police started putting parking tickets on her diesel trucks -- saying they were too large to be parked on a city street -- Thomas got mad.

And then she got even.

On Tuesday, a judge agreed with Thomas. The trucks will be allowed to stay. Nineteen tickets that could have netted Thomas more more than $2,000 in fines and court costs were thrown out because a judge said that Thomas' home in the Village of the Arts is part of a business district that gives a wide discretion to those who live there.

Some homeowners in the village just south of downtown Bradenton live above their businesses, while others paint their houses in vibrant pinks and purples. None, for example, are required to build paved parking lots for their customers.

"It's a special business district, the police knew this and they decided to give me ticket after ticket anyway," Thomas said Tuesday afternoon. "I won. I beat them and I'm not going to stop fighting."

The face-off between Thomas and the city started innocently enough, when a code inspector asked her to move her trucks two years ago. Thomas fought and won that case, but says that the recent trouble began after she put up signs in her yard denouncing Mayor Wayne Poston, who is in a hot re-election campaign this fall.

Thomas says tickets started showing up on her trucks days after the signs were posted. One day, she was pulled over by a Bradenton police officer -- not for a traffic infraction but because he wanted to remind her that the department wanted the trucks moved.

When she complained, she says, department administrators blew her off.

Police Chief Michael Radzilowski was not aware that the citations were dropped, but said Tuesday that local officers have worked with Thomas to make sure that the case is resolved.

"I know she has been working with her neighborhood officer and code enforcement on it," Radzilowski said.

Now that the parking case is finished, a civil suit seems to be in the offing. Thomas says she wants to sue the city for harassment and she plans to file the suit in a few weeks.

"They haven't seen the last of me," she said. "You watch out. I'm not finished with them yet."

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