Chalking it up

The relationship between most GCSU students and Tina Collette is an uncomfortable one, at best. Most simply know her as the “parking ticket lady,” and the nature of her position as downtown Milledgeville’s parking enforcement officer earns her few friends in the 18-to-25-year-old age bracket.

“I’ve literally had people drive by and yell, ‘Get a real job!’” Collette said. “It’s not a glamorous job by any means but it is a good job. It keeps you outside, you get to meet a lot of people, even though most people instead of waving, they look at their watch.”

Collette is easily recognizable on duty. Her trademark bright blond hair and dark sunglasses contrast her powder blue uniform shirt from inside the golf cart she navigates the streets of downtown in. Up close, a crude cross tattoo on her right wrist, bright blue fingernail polish and an imposing physique beg questions regarding her history. Her résumé reveals an interesting variety of work, from time spent in the military and as a jailer for Baldwin Country, to working at Petland during its operation in Milledgeville.

“I went into the military in 1978, which was the first year they no longer had the Women’s Army Corps,” Collette said. “I trained with the men and went in as (part of the) military police.”

After a few years of “doing nothing” and a move to Georgia, Collette got married to a construction worker and had three children, who are currently 22, 18 and 14. After three years working at Petland, she was hired and trained for a parking enforcement position with the city of Milledgeville.

Her first stint was short-lived due to family problems which she had to handle in North Carolina. Upon returning to Milledgeville, she began training as an officer at the Bill E. Ireland Youth Development Campus, but took a job as a Baldwin County jailer just after finishing training at the YDC.

“I really liked (being a jailer),” Collette said. “The best part about it is that you know what you’re getting going in.”

Following her time as a jailer for the county, Collette returned to the Milledgeville Police Department to take an open parking enforcement officer position, where she continues to work today.

Her job consists of marking tires with chalk on the end of a stick while riding in roughly one-hour course loops around the two-hour parking zones downtown. One mark means the car has been passed by once, two marks means it has been in the spot for at least an hour, and if she finds a car with two marks on the tire, she whips out the ticket book. She works Mondays through Fridays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m, except during rain

She has become the face of parking tickets for GCSU students and understands the awkward relationship her duties have with the students.

“I really do sympathize with the college kids, with trying to get to and from class and not being able to leave a three-hour class to move their cars,” Collette said. “I don’t think I’m like the worst parking enforcement officer or anything.”

Collette does have her gripes with certain tactics students employ to attempt to beat the system.

“I can’t stand when (students) rub the (chalk) marks off the tires. I don’t know if they think I can’t see where they rubbed it or what, but it’s like they just use their shoe or something,” Collette said. “I feel for those students who say things like ‘I don’t have these 10 bucks, I’m putting myself through school,’ and things like that, but I take my full-time job working for the city of Milledgeville very seriously.”

Arguments between Collette and GCSU students are more than a minor part of the job. On certain occasions, even Collette’s best attempts to be reasonable have fallen short to the tempers of ticket recipients.

“I get called in literally every single day for a ticket dispute,” Collette said, “and that’s why I carry (my) camera. I don’t mind talking to people about (why I wrote a ticket). They pretty much always change their tune when I show them photo evidence, but some people have gotten so angry over a parking citation that they were on the verge of getting thrown in jail.”

Collette is the central figure of an interesting tug-of-war: Parking violations earn money for the city and it is her job to enforce the parking laws, but GCSU and its students are a huge source of income for the city. The two sides often clash on weekday afternoons when Collette rolls up to a tire with two chalk lines.

“One guy just asked me, ‘What am I supposed to do?’ and I told him flat-out, ‘Look, just don’t park in two-hour parking for a three-hour class’,” Collette said. “I mean the options may be few, but there are options besides the two-hour parking. Having people get so angry at me for doing my job is definitely the worst part of it.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 13 2009. Filed under Perspectives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry