Tom Graham uses the Pango app and coupons for free cheeseburgers to pay his parking fees downtown.
The Times-Shamrock employee eagerly downloaded the free parking app to his smartphone Tuesday, which allows parkers to call or text a phone number that will allow for payment of a parking-meter space via a smartphone.
Since then he's found three parking tickets plastered to his windshield. When he went to City Hall, he was told the tickets would be voided, but he had to come and show proof that he paid through Pango whenever he received one.
Mr. Graham's experience is evidence of a rocky start to a 90-day trial of a smart parking program administered through Pango Mobile Parking of Baltimore.
The smart parking trial run comes at no cost to the city, according to city officials. With new, long-term meter management having been delayed now for five months, city officials decided to pursue the Pango system as a way to generate more meter revenue, city Business Administrator Ryan McGowan has said.
The problem, according to Pango CEO Dani Shavit, may be that there are not enough iPads to equip the six employees involved in Scranton's parking-meter collections and enforcement.
He said Thursday that the city of Scranton was originally given two iPads and have called to request three more, which are expected to be delivered today.
"It was a technical issue and it was a learning curve," he said. "All the tickets are going to be voided."
Mr. Shavit said more than 300 people in Scranton have signed up to park through Pango as of Thursday.
City administrators could not be reached for comment Thursday night.
Until the kinks are worked out, Mr. Graham has a unique solution to try and avoid being ticketed. He typed a letter and left it on the dash of his vehicle, informing the meter workers of his plight, and left coupons for a free cheeseburger on his windshield for employees who check parking meters.
Mr. Graham likes both the Pango app and will enjoy it even more when he stops being ticketed in spite of paying through his phone.
"To feed a meter is an easy thing for me to do, plus I can start and stop it," he said of the smartphone pay system. "Hopefully people will stick through and see how it goes."
Contact the writer: ksullivan@timesshamrock.com, @ksullivanTT on Twitter