As part of a proposal to limit on-street disabled parking to four hours, the ordinance would establish a system of volunteer enforcement officers to check whether parkers with a disabled placard also have a state identification card to verify their disabled status.
The Bremerton City Council has not officially considered the idea, proposed by Council President Nick Wofford.
The system would work like the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Department’s Citizens on Patrol group, which sends part-time volunteers to check on disabled parking spots, mainly in the Silverdale area.
Bob Duprie, city manager of Diamond Parking in Bremerton, said Diamond already performs random checks of disabled parkers’ identification and most comply with the law.
“Having a volunteer there really won’t solve that problem,” he said, adding that the bigger issue is disabled parkers using the same spot all day, which Wofford hopes the four-hour cap would fix.
Wofford said he wants to pursue a volunteer enforcement system regardless of whether the four-hour disabled parking limit passes.
