With apologies to Marty, Parking Services is perhaps the WORST (or at least one of the worst) units on campus. All of these units reside under the same umbrella, known as "facilities and auxiliaries". Other units in this area include Printing Services (the biggest competition for worst unit), Dining (wrought with nepotism), Airport, etc.

These units are all charged with REVENUE GENERATION as their primary goal. Not serving students, faculty and staff. Not improving Ohio University. Making money...that's it. Marty is evaluated the same way a salesperson would be - how much money did you bring in? The fact that "services" is in the title is such a misnomer. They do not aim to serve in any way, shape or form!

Think about it this way...if your business could go around and put bills on people's windshields, why wouldn't you? You'd probably charge a hefty price, and want to do it as much as you could. Especially if your victims are required to pay. It's about the easiest way you could ever make money. Want to make 5 million dollars? Sure...write more tickets and tow more cars. How about 10 million? Yep, that's easy. It's like the "name your price" tool.

Speaking in economic terms, Parking Services is a largely unregulated monopoly. There is no competition for parking...students, faculty and staff have no other options. And almost no checks and balances are placed on them by the university. So, they can set the rules and price to do whatever they want. And we, the people, are completely at their mercy. Want to know how much power parking services yields? A few years ago, there was an event I was helping out with. It required reserving a parking lot. To do this, the President's Office had to pay $1,500 to clear the lot. Yes, that's right...even President McDavis has to pay up. The unit is so out of control that even the President of the University can't circumvent it's crazy, made-up rules. If that doesn't tell you something is wrong, I don't know what will. The tail is wagging the dog.

Marty acts as though he is some sort of public servant "just following orders", but that is far from the case. Parking Services makes up all of these rules. It's not "university policy"...it's "parking services policy". And 99.9% of the "university" vehemently disagrees with it. When the President doesn't even yield power over the unit, you know there's a major problem. They have literally become their own empire, operating completely outside the confines of anything Ohio University actually is trying to accomplish.

Years ago under President Glidden, there was discussion among higher-level administrators to disband the unit and have largely unregulated parking. While several of these administrators are gone, I hope this discussion does get revisited.

2 or 3 years ago, they changed the rules of pregame tailgate parking in Tailgreat Park.....before the 3rd game of the season. There was no warning and no information provided that they were restricting parking to 3 hrs before kickoff. Those of us that get there 6-7 hours before kickoff were told to go somewhere else for a few hours. I was furious because it just came out of the blue and we were expecting a large pregame tailgate crowd that day.

I was polite to the student parking attendant, but requested to talk to someone higher up. While I was waiting, I looked online and found out Marty was the head of Parking Services. A little while later, there was a guy from Parking Services walking around the lot. I asked if he was Marty and he said he was not. He also told me he didn't think Marty would be over to talk to me. An hour later, a member of OUPD told me that guy was, in fact, Marty.

He flat out lied to my face about who he was. The Gameday parking that day was a complete train wreck. He looked me in the eye and would not own up to who he was. That spineless incident has shaped my view of him, and the department he "leads".

The change in football pregame parking to 7 hrs before kickoff is a result of that day. I'm not sure how many on this board have had a personal experience with him, but I have. I have the proper parking credentials for what I need to do on campus, including athletic events. It doesn't change my opinion of him as an individual, or a representative of Ohio University. He had an opportunity to have a civilized conversation with me. Instead he became a wuss and a bold-faced liar.

Marty on more than one occasion I've seen you hide behind your door while students get berated because you refuse to come deal with a problem. Your parking committee is the biggest sham and CYA on campus. But keep on winning friends and inflicting people.


And you have LOST NO spaces, because you are being PAID every day by ICA for spaces during construction, same with the South Green Dorms! Another reason that the practices of your group is driving up cost for construction. Would you like to produce documents regarding what you are charging ICA for construction of the IPF? This is public record after all.

Actually, this is the logical way to do it, and many large corporations follow a similar type model. It is for efficiency's sake.

I work as a network engineer for a large corporation. Instead of allocating money for the network to spend, we are treated as a completely seperate business, charging the other business units for headcount, bandwidth usage, total number of servers, etc. It keeps us as efficient as possible, and ensures that all expenditures are completely justified.

Its kinda the only way a "cost center" (which parking enforcement undoubtedly is) can operate efficiently.

That said, in my years as a student, parking services was always a huge pain. You couldn't park in an empty lot for even 5 minutes past 6:30 AM (when free parking ended) without getting a $20 ticket.

Indeed, I couldn't get my paper diploma until I paid off about six of those bad boys, it's a miracle I was never booted, haha...

Ducked you too  many times for your parking violations or ducked you too many times on behalf of Tommy.  There's a big difference in to the two.  When I got in trouble, it was my responsibility to deal with it, not my parents.  As the younger set says, just sayin.

I remember one year the Fire Marshall and one OU police officer proceeded to demand that we move the TV broadcast truck over by 6" to comply with regulations. Of course they brought this to our attention less than 30 minutes before tip-off. It would have required completely disconnecting the truck. I told both officials that if the Convo burned down I would take complete responsibility. Once we told them moving it would mean disconnecting everything they were good natured about it and told us make sure it was over 6" next time.

I personally have never had issues with OUPD.

Hilarious coming from you. This is the second time in a week you've come at him with that, but sure, act defensive.

bump

I don't post much anymore, but this is the greatest thread I've seen in the past 2 years. Don't let it end.

Alan

I do not care if you know Marty or not. These transgressions seem to be widely held as irrational by many here who have suffered them.

You can make the case for speed limits too... "just obey the law" you say. The NTSB did their own studies(google it)  and found that speed limits are artificially set 12MPH too low acrss the Unitied States on ave\rage. T\Just because bodies pass laws and rules does not make them right or based in good practices. Marty is wrong in the way he approaches the job and is a chicken when it comes to facing up to people he has wronged.

If his folks were truly diligent in their job and they thought those cars of OHIO gameday folk and UMASS announcers were a tr\errorist threat they should have called the OUPD and engaged the protocols.
 
IF they were illegally parked and they wanted to "go the extra mile" they would have gone inside the Convo and made an announcement instead of calling the Athletic Department who in all the cases I have seen are nowhere near a desk or a phone on gameday. . I am sure all those AD  folk were inside doing their jobs btu common sense did not prevail by the ticket writers and those who have the authority to tow.

. I have been there many times long before parking got there and put up signs. That is how I got towed many moons ago. They put up towing signs AFTER I got to Athens and walked uptown many  hours before the night game. To their credit that has changed over hte last 3 years and the lot closures have become much better marked. This is part of a bigger picture and that is just one example that begins with parents dropping kids off for camp getting ticketed in the time it takes them to walk in  with their 4th grader and back out..... to ticketing athletes in the weight room at 6 31 AM with many more incedentsdescribed here and out in the public in between.  .

I understand your loyalty to a guy but in your argument for personal accountability and not fighting others battles do you not see the apparent and glaring hole? You are doing just what you are accusing others of.... his job performance on a satisfaction scale for "services" is abysmal by the folk who are his constituents and users. That  others have come out in favor of and many more against is at least a conversation that needed to happen.

If you do not think little things like this affect athletes and parents who are on visits and looking at 4 years of this I suggest you are out of touch. We can and should do better...for our fans, for our athletes, for everyone around the U. I refuse to beleive that if other universities handle it better then we may want to learn from them rather than staying loking for answers within our little conclave. Like it or not you never know what outsider may have a great OHIO experience marred by one little thing...and to be sure, saying "you should have consulted the website or parking services" to an outsider visiting just throws gas on the fire, especially if they are sitting in a parking  lot trying to find their car that has been taken somewhere... .

I left this thread after I got a PM from the account in question, even redacted the post just so it didn't turn into a drawn out fight over nothing. Now that half the board has jumped in and people think it's a spoof I should have left it. I can always rewrite it, I suppose.