City of Albuquerque offers parking citation deal until April

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — More than 30,000 parking citations were issued in Albuquerque last year — and more than 7,000 are unpaid.

"When a person leaves a citation unpaid, it escalates," Jeremy Keiser, the city’s parking division manager, said. "So after a 10-day period, it doubles. After a 20-day period, it triples, and then after the 30-day period, it escalates to the metropolitan court to where the person will be responsible for any court fees — and/or the citations."

Keiser said the most common citation is just for an expired meter with a starting fee of $20. He said he understands that paying up has been tough for residents.

"The parking division took a little bit of a relaxed approach onto escalating some of the citations to the metropolitan court, which the metropolitan court is in agreement with," he said.

Also a special deal will last throughout the month of March.

"Starting March 1, we’re going to bring all the outstanding citations down to their single fine amount. So if they’ve doubled, tripled or even to the point where they’ve escalated to the court — on March 1 they’re all going to be dialed back to a single fine amount."

Once April hits, the unpaid fees bounce back to the outstanding total due.

To pay, there’s a few options: call 311, email parking@cabq.gov or pay it online.

For those who want to pay in-person, they will need to make an appointment due to COVID-19.