Fifth & State
Your inside look at everything Garland, unscripted. Join Mayor Dylan Hedrick and City Manager Mike Betz as they dive into the topics shaping our city.
Fifth & State
City Marshal and Parking Enforcement
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In this episode, Mayor Dylan Hedrick and City Manager Mike Betz sit down with City Marshal Judy Granado to discuss the important role the City Marshal’s Office plays in serving Garland. From supporting Municipal Court operations to enforcing neighborhood standards like parking, the department helps keep our community safe, organized and welcoming.
Welcome to Fifth Instate, your inside look at everything Garland unscripted. Join Mayor Dylan Hedrick and dive into the topic shaping our city. Let's get started.
SPEAKER_04Welcome back to Fifth Insta, the podcast where we take you behind the scenes of how Garland works. I'm Mayor Dylan Hedrick. And I'm City Manager Mike Betts. Today we're talking about a department that plays a unique and important role in our community, the City Marshal's office. From supporting municipal court operations to helping enforce neighborhood standards like parking, this team keeps Garland safe, orderly, and welcoming for our community. And today we have City Marshal Judy Granada with us. Thank you for having for thank you for being here.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. It's an honor.
SPEAKER_04So just tell us a little bit about your background. How did you get to the city? How did you get the path to become City Marshal?
SPEAKER_01Well, um actually I started with the Dallas Police Department in 1979. Well, with the city of Dallas in 1979. I worked in the old city jail there, um, probably before some of y'all were born. And then I went to the police academy in Dallas in 1983 and I spent 21 years with Dallas. And when I retired from there, I came to work here and as a deputy marshal. I came here in 2001 uh 2000. In 2004, I believe we moved over to the new court building and I was made a a lead over the marshal's office. We were under the court at that time. And from there, um, when um actually our city manager used to be our marshal, and when he took over uh as the marshal, then um I was promoted to lieutenant. And after that I made captain, and then uh when Sean Roden took marshal, when um Mr. Betts retired, I made deputy chief. And when Sean retired, I was promoted to the marshal and sworn in on January the first under Mike Betts.
SPEAKER_04Oh wonderful. We're so glad and you've worked your way up through and I have. What drew you to this line of work in public service?
SPEAKER_01Um, you know, I I don't know, just um always trying to be a law-abiding citizen, and my my parents, of course, you know, instilled uh those values in us. And I I was one of five girls in my family, and um my father died when I was only seven, so we kind of had to take care of ourselves. And um when I married, I was uh I married a deputy sheriff for Dallas County, and so I don't know, it just kind of caught my interest.
SPEAKER_04That's wonderful. Taking care of yourself, now you're helping take care of Garland. That's right. That's fabulous, yeah. So for those who aren't familiar with the city marshal's office, their day-to-day operations, can you tell us about what they do?
SPEAKER_01We do quite a lot, actually. Um we uh guard six city buildings in the city of Garland. I have an officer in uh City Hall, uh the Duckworth Building, the Carver Building, uh MSMB, the Ron Jones Building, and uh of course the court. And at the court we screen everyone that comes in through a metal detector, and that's uh five days a week, you know, in each of these buildings, Monday through Friday. Uh the court actually does court four days a week, Monday through Thursday, and multiple times on some days, most days. And um I have to have a bailiff up there. We pick up deposits around the city about five different locations a day, which equals out to about twenty-five different locations we go to weekly. And um we pick those deposits up from other city departments and then bring them to Binance here for an armored car to pick up at another time. We do transfers and that's where um maybe uh s someone is arrested in Rowed or Mesquite on one of our warrants and they hold them for us, and then we have to go pick them up and bring them back to our jail. We also do transports to Dallas County, and that's uh uh people that have warrants that are county level. They're not Class C, they're a higher level charge, and we have to transport them down to Dallas County.
SPEAKER_04Um I know if we had to walk in, I we're recording now at the Central Library here. I walked through the front door and there's a marshal sitting right there at the front door.
SPEAKER_01Yes, we have a we have also um I might have forgot that a while ago. We have a marshal at Central Library. I'd like to have a marshal at all of our libraries, but you know that's um that's something for y'all to decide at a later date. But um and uh we of course do parking. That's a a major thing that we do now.
SPEAKER_04We'll certainly get into that. I know there's a lot of questions and people are certainly interested in that. But you guys are all licensed uh peace officers. That's correct. Uh so what then is the difference between your office and our police department? Because you do a lot of kind of the similar things, it seems like.
SPEAKER_01We do. Um we're more on the civil side. Um marshals are historically officers of the court. However, here we do much more than, you know, just bailiff and watch the judges and keep the court staff and citizens safe. We um go out into the community and do a lot of civil process. And we also serve civil papers like uh summons and subpoenas. But um we started this uh um parking program uh where we go out into neighborhoods, and that's a lot of what we do is just handle civil process. It mirrors the criminal law to some degree uh on a smaller level.
SPEAKER_03So fun fact about the police department and the Garland City Marshall's office, most people don't realize the Garland City Marshall's office is much older. The first Marshall was put in place in the eight late 1800s and and uh the police department came into existence much, much later than that. Uh and that's an odd, you know, we've the marshals have a long history of doing many different tasks. There's a new old newspaper article from the nineteen early nineteen hundreds where the marshal, it was in the newspaper that the marshal had reported to the city council that he had eradicated bull weevils here in the city of Garland. And so if you want to know the kinds of tasks marshals have done over the years, it's all sorts of things. Now, fortunately, the council hasn't asked me about bull weevil eradication since I don't know what a bull weevil is.
SPEAKER_04Well, now it's out there. We might add that to the list. Uh I can assure them they're eradicated here. I guess we're going to put that down. So, what is the most common type? I mean, you mentioned your bailiff as well. When I think of a bailiff, you know, and this is an old show I used to watch with my parents, Night Court. You got Bull, the bailiff there standing there. You do that kind of work. What is the kind of work that takes up most of the marshal's time?
SPEAKER_01Um I would say uh it's between uh working in the court uh uh and uh parking would take up most of our time. The bailiffs, of course, unlock the door. Anytime someone's in a courtroom, we've got a uh an officer up there. Because after the front doors are open for people to enter, then you have access to the back where the judges' quarters are at. And um so um we have court, like I said, four days a week and at least twice a day on each day. And uh our bailiffs actually check people in and then they might call and verify insurance coverage. Um and of course they keep uh order in the court.
SPEAKER_04And something you also do is execute misdemeanor arrest warrants as well for a municipal court?
SPEAKER_01Yes, sir. Yes, sir. We uh don't actively go out pursuing people too often, but that is one of uh the things we do and would do more of if we had more staffing.
SPEAKER_04Mm-hmm. And I know you mentioned the big one everyone wants to know more about is our parking enforcement program. Yes. And that's uh something that we're all dealing with in all of our residential neighborhoods. Can you tell us a little bit about how that works through your office?
SPEAKER_01Yes, uh I have four dedicated officers to the parking program. However, I've just got two going right now because I have two uh openings. As a citizen of Garland, you can turn in a complaint on a parking issue, and there's several ways to do that. You can call our 2200 extension and that officer is sitting at Carver, and you will actually talk to a live human being about your parking issue, and he will enter your complaint for you. 2222.
SPEAKER_032222. 972205-2222.
SPEAKER_01Yes, sir. We have a website. Of course, you can go to the Garland website. I actually uh before I came over here just Googled it. I well I asked Siri, you know, tell me about the parking program in Garland and uh tons of information comes up. It gives you uh the the way you can go to eAssist and enter your own complaint or gives you the the actual phone number to call for a live person. It gives you the website reference. So um we we do get a lot of parking complaints and then um So what happens then after someone makes a complaint to the city, gets put into the system?
SPEAKER_04What happens at that point?
SPEAKER_01Well, when my guys come to work and some of them start at six in the morning, they uh pull up the list of complaints, what we have open, and they start addressing those. Um we have just since I took over in January, have just started uh my new motto is go see do. You you go out there and and you do whatever you see needs to be done. And that doesn't that's not just parking, that's everywhere, that's in the court building. If you see a piece of paper on the floor, let's stop and pick it up and clean up our building. Um if you know, if you see uh uh someone come in through the doors that needs assistance, let's let's run open the door for them. You know, I want them to go and address every issue that needs to be addressed that's under our, you know, under our umbrella.
SPEAKER_03So you you respond to complaints, you also do proactive parking enforcement. That's correct. So tell us what that means.
SPEAKER_01Um well our guys if if um you know we're trying to work on the complaints mostly and we do that, but and while we're doing a complaint, if we see something in the area, we of course address the other issues that we view. But uh if we if we have the time, we go out and we just look for, you know, or maybe we're driving to lunch and see, you know, a car parked on on the grass somewhere. Well, we can stop and address that as well. So we're we're looking for these uh violations and trying to clean up uh the neighborhoods. I mean, you know, uh another frequently used motto of ours is uh, you know, we are we're we're trying to enhance the quality of life for the citizens of Garland. And helping with some of the issues that are that are affecting them, and you know, we might not even think about it that much, but you know, the parking is is is a big issue in it.
SPEAKER_04It is a big issue to fix a lot of our citizens, similar to we had code compliance on our last podcast, and they talked about exactly the same thing affecting the quality of life for our citizens. So what are some of those most common parking violations that you see out in the field?
SPEAKER_01Um a lot uh we see uh everything. I I brought a pie chart, but um uh uh we mostly see uh 48-hour violations where they just park a truck and just leave it and never move it. And some of them sometimes they're broken down or they're damaged vehicles, or you know, they've been in a wreck and they just had them brought by a wrecker and dumped in front of their house. And and you know, that's okay if it's for you know 48 hours and then you're gonna get it to a shop or something. But uh if it stays there and then even if they try to work on it, then that's you know causes a safety hazard for uh the other citizens. You know, maybe uh oil leaks in the street and and that's unsightly, or or maybe it even gets into our our storm drain system, you know. Uh uh junk vehicles, unregistered vehicles, uh parking across the sidewalk, which is a a very hazardous violation because, you know, say a child's walking home from school, then they have to go out into the street to get around that car, or a or a person in a wheelchair would have to go out into the street, or a parent pushing a baby stroller. Um actually parking the wrong direction. You have to pull into uh a lane of traffic coming your way to get out of that parking spot. Um unregistered vehicles. We we see it all, actually. Oversized vehicles, uh company trucks that are parking in the neighborhood.
SPEAKER_04Parking on lawns. I know people parking on paved surfaces.
SPEAKER_01That's correct. Unimproved surfaces, that's a big one for us as well.
SPEAKER_04And uh how many tickets, how many violations do you see in a typical day, how many uh citations do you write during a typical period?
SPEAKER_01Um it it depends on who I've got out, you know, how many I've got in the field. Um one officer can go out and write up to a hundred tickets a day. I mean, you know, that's not the norm, but say thirty, fifty.
SPEAKER_04I'm sure you could easily find a hundred violations that time would allow, they could.
SPEAKER_03Now have you seen over the years that we've uh been doing parking enforcement with the marshals, have you seen an improvement in the parking conditions? I have.
SPEAKER_01As a matter of fact, I just got some stats earlier today that um since January when I was sworn in, um our parking tickets have gone extremely up. And um my my lieutenant over the parking notified me that we have two-thirds of the tickets are being paid at this time, which is uh it's that's great news for us because that's been an issue even after issuing the tickets, you know, people not paying them.
SPEAKER_03If a if a person doesn't pay a ticket, then they risk their vehicle being towed, don't they?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. If you get five more five or more tickets in a 12-month period, and that can be any twelve-month period, it's not a calendar year or anything, uh, we'll tow your car if we see it on a public street.
SPEAKER_04I know Samander Betts, you were instrumental in formulating this whole ticketing process. Can you tell about the kind of the origins of and the fee structure and all that?
SPEAKER_03Sure, sure. One of the things that we did when we implemented the parking program is we wanted a a lower parking fine than we had with the criminal citation. Because and we wanted a ticket that was easy to issue so that we could get lots of enforcement and it would be easy for residents to comply, easy for them to dispose of a ticket if they got it and they wanted to challenge it. And the parking program was designed to be easy. When we first rolled it out, we did almost all warnings and we saw a bunch of improvement in the neighborhoods just from the warnings. And then the more we did enforcement, the harder it would be to find uh vehicles that were parked illegally. So the whole design that the council wanted at the time was not to try to raise revenue or not to try to punish residents, but was to try to improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods so that people could enjoy the neighborhoods, walk their sidewalks, not have vehicles parked on the grass and up on the curbs and the things that were uh really affecting the quality of life in the neighborhoods.
SPEAKER_04I think it's been effective. We've seen, like you said, we've seen improvement going forward and we we really don't mean to be punitive either. We want compliance as our goal.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. And it and like like I mentioned before, it's not all just cosmetic, you know, it's uh some of it's hazardous, you know. And um we we do we uh me and my staff go to HOA meetings and try to educate people and you know talk about the the issues with parking. We do town hall meetings. Um, you know, any time we're asked to speak on the subject, we'll g we'll go out and you know, give a a talk to the public.
SPEAKER_04That's wonderful because I was gonna ask about education. How do we get our public aware of violations that they may have parking, but you said you're willing to go talk to any neighborhood association to better educate our citizens. But how do you then balance the education with the enforcement part of it?
SPEAKER_01Um, you know, um Is there a warning that you give first?
SPEAKER_04Or you know, is how's that?
SPEAKER_01There's sometimes we do give a warning, and a lot of times if we go out on a complaint, we might encounter the resident, and at that time we have a conversation with them, and maybe no ticket is issued. Um, you know, depending on what the violation is and if the car can if it can be settled right there without a ticket.
SPEAKER_04Move your car out of the sidewalk.
SPEAKER_01That'd be great. That's what we want to do. We um also we have some little um we've made up some.
SPEAKER_04Oh, now you're bringing out candy bars for it.
SPEAKER_03When we go to a uh meeting, a lot of times we give out um City Marshall Office branded parking uh chocolate bars. That's uh that's a good incentive to get people to comply with the partner. There you go.
SPEAKER_01And it has our it has some information on the back where they can call in their complaints. And we used to do uh there we used to be a mayor's conference and we would set up a table and we would talk to the citizens that came through and and ask them to take a candy bar and and have our number, you know, you can take the the wrapper that I put over the Hershey's kit uh over the Hershey's and put it on your bulletin board or on your refrigerator or something. And so uh educating the public is is an ongoing thing that we want to always uh be active in.
SPEAKER_03So once someone actually gets a ticket, what's the process from there? If you get a civil citation because you parked uh up on the sidewalk or on the grass or parked too close to a fire hydrant or an intersection, you get a ticket, what's the process from there? Could you tell the public that?
SPEAKER_01They can actually take that. Most of them call us as soon as they get the ticket and we talk to them on the phone. But uh you can take the ticket and it has uh I actually have a copy of a ticket with me. I don't know what I did with it now, but um they can take that ticket and it has the information on the bottom of it. They can call and pay it over the phone right then and there if they want to get that 25. You know, if they've just decided, okay, I'm paying$25 for this for parking here today or for whatever the violation is. Or they can see a hearing officer. Um they can decide that there's a court date on the ticket as well. They can uh our hearing officer is at the Duckworth building and he is here on the first and third Monday and Wednesday of each month. So they can go to any of those times, or they can go to a specific date that's on their ticket.
SPEAKER_03So if they get a ticket and and the date that's on the ticket's not convenient, they can go to any Monday or Wednesday, first or third Monday or Wednesday prior to the date on the ticket.
SPEAKER_01Prior to the the hearing date.
SPEAKER_03Wow, that's great.
SPEAKER_01And it's it's uh from what I understand, it's real easy to get in, you know. Uh you just go and and let him know that you're here and then he talks with you and they make a dis he makes a adjudication then and there.
SPEAKER_03It's a pretty informal process, right? She just sits at a desk or table and and the president can explain why they're parked that way and he can listen to it and decide if he wants to reduce the fine, keep the fine, or waive the fine.
SPEAKER_01Yes. And um and so if they're uh found liable for their citation, they can, you know, they're given a time to pay it, and they can pay it right there at the tax office where the hearing officer is or they can uh appeal the ticket and there's a process for that. They come over to the municipal court, there's a form they fill out, and uh you pay a uh a fee for that appeal process, and then one of the municipal court judges hears that, usually Judge Sheldon.
SPEAKER_04And on the ticket, it's I mean, the ticket it shows you the violation. I know I've seen several examples. You take a picture, for instance, of the vehicle actually parked across the sidewalk. Absolutely. So it's pretty evident whether or not that violation occurred.
SPEAKER_01Yes, and that's what um the actual hearing officer can pull that up. And I was just thinking that um I'm gonna go set with him uh next week. And you know, I don't I I I know he can show them on, you know, turn his laptop around and show them. Uh I I think it would be a great idea if we had a larger monitor and he could put it in and say, see and big big old.
SPEAKER_03So just so the residents are aware, we actually have a picture of the violation and it's given to them on the ticket and then it's mailed to them in the mail a notice of the citation plus a picture of the actual violation so they can see exactly what they did wrong.
SPEAKER_01Yes, if you don't pay that citation. Within 10 days, you get a notice in the mail. And then after that, it's 65 days and you get a late fee add in, and that late fee is$25. So it doubles your fine if you don't pay it within your time frame. And um if and if you get that same ticket more than once, the fee goes up. Like if you're parked on an unimproved surface and you get a$25 ticket, and then a month later we write you another one for the same vehicle for the same offense that's a$50 ticket, and then it goes up to$75, and then anything after that would remain$75.
SPEAKER_04I know Mike, when you first implemented this program, we talked about the infamous barnacle. That is still on our website. Can you talk what tell us what that is?
SPEAKER_03It is, and and the barnacle would be allow us to immobilize a vehicle by putting it on a windshield. One of the things that we found out is the barnacle was only for vehicles that had more than three tickets, but less than five tickets. And the truth is most of our residents only have one ticket. The vast majority of people who get a parking ticket get one parking ticket and never get another one. And then we have repeat offenders, and most of them have five or more. So it was very hard to find. So we haven't used the barnacle very much, but it was very hard to find a resident who had three or four tickets, but not five. And at five tickets, we tow the vehicle away. Uh we imagined that there was going to be people who would have three and four. And it turns out that most residents only get one ticket and then they park the way that they know the law requires them to. And and then there's people who don't park in accordance with the law, and it's just like traffic tickets. Some people never get a traffic ticket their whole life, and some get one every other month because they're not as careful. And so we wind up not using the barnacle very much, but we have uh towing enforcement, and that does get used quite a bit with people who have more than five tickets.
SPEAKER_01Since January we've towed three vehicles for more than five, and some of them had seventeen tickets, some of them had you know, it was this right here is a list of over the people that have over five tickets.
SPEAKER_04That is a thick stack of paper there that you have.
SPEAKER_01It is. This is the top twenty, so the top twenty offenders.
SPEAKER_04That's right. They're on the most wanted list. Right. That's it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Well, so tell us something memorable or unexpected experience that you had or you've seen out there, it doesn't necessarily have to be parking related, but during your time as a marshal.
SPEAKER_01Oh my goodness, uh I've seen so much in my 26 years. Um when I first started, we uh we didn't do all that we do now, and so we did more of the going out and serving warrants, and I think I think that during a warrant roundup one time, uh when we used to participate in what was called the North Ta North Texas Great Warrant Roundup, and that was with all the neighboring agencies. And um so I took it real seriously, and I sat down and printed me the top 20 of those. And I went out on a Sunday morning to uh pick up a gentleman that had like 20 warrants, and I drove to Siegelville. He was frying some chicken up, he goes, Oh, I know I've got these tickets. He said, I just fried me some chicken, will you let me eat it? And I said, Sure. I came in and sat down at his kitchen table and let him eat his chicken and then brought him to jail. So I think that was one memorable thing.
SPEAKER_03Um He didn't offer customer service, man. That really goes above and beyond that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was it was great. He was a very nice gentleman. He had just gotten behind and taken care of some of his responsibilities, and you know, he wasn't a true true criminal, but you know, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Did he offer you any how was the chicken?
SPEAKER_01Uh he did offer me some, but I declined. I just had breakfast, though.
SPEAKER_04Okay. Yeah. What do you see the future of the Marshall's office in Garland? What do you think is in store for us?
SPEAKER_01Oh my goodness. Uh we have grown by leaps and bounds uh over the 26 years that I've been here, and I see that that has been uh a forward for us. I think we'll continue to grow. Like I said, um we're always getting requests for uh more things that need to be done. You know, that um like we're just taking on um some civil work on these uh coupons, these uh neighborhood flyers that are being thrown in the streets of Garland. And we're going out looking for those people because that's also uh a civil process.
SPEAKER_03And that's a real quality of life issue, right? We hear about that a lot from our residents who who they get people who are throwing advertisements instead of putting them within five feet of the door as required, they just throw them down in the street and then they clog up the streets and the the storm drains and all the rest of that. And you you guys are looking for those folks, aren't you?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. And I I uh when I get a new project, I usually personally go out and try to assess what needs to be done and you know, so I can direct my people. And uh I went out after I was told about these uh flyers. I actually picked one up, but I took pictures of these everywhere.
SPEAKER_04I mean, there might be a newspaper in a plastic bag. Yes. Just like the Dallas Morning News, but it's never goes away because it's in plastic.
SPEAKER_01It'll go down into our drains, our storm drains, and um and it's just unsightly as well. And and a lot of our residents are elderly and they they don't make that trip out to the edge of the driveway to the street and to pick these up. I saw some houses that had five of these laying in the street. Or, you know, or or w two laying in the in the driveway and one up in the yard, or you know.
SPEAKER_04That's been a concern for our residents. Not only the pollution aspect of it, but if they go away for vacation for a week and you got five of these piled up, it's a signal, hey, I'm not home.
SPEAKER_01That's right.
SPEAKER_03So you guys are trying to crack that crime and make that stop. Is that correct?
SPEAKER_01Yes, we're working on it. It hasn't been an easy assignment because these people are a little bit elusive, but I won't stop until we find them. There we go. That and um other, you know, like like I mentioned earlier, the North Library and the South Library and the West Library would all like to have an officer in their facility. And uh and we always uh, you know, work hand in hand with the police department. We talked a little bit about that a few minutes ago. Um, you know, how do we differ from them? And and we have all the same credentials. We're Texas State Peace Officers. I'm a master peace officer, and most of my staff is, except for the younger ones. Um we help the police department for parades, for protests, for special events. I attend a special event meeting um, you know, with several of the lieutenants from the police department every month. We do that on on a monthly basis for all the things that go on at the downtown square and uh other events, you know. We have uh all over the city, parks has a lot of um events going on like paintball tournaments and um you know soccer tournaments and stuff like that. And we've been asked to help with the parks closing up some gates and stuff that's gonna be coming up. We haven't done that yet, and that hasn't materialized as far as getting the actual gate up yet, but that's a project on the horizon for that.
SPEAKER_04We just talked about that in our last work session on city council. We did. Well, I've got several questions from residents. I know this was a popular topic, so are you ready for take some questions? Okay. First one we had at Ablam Park, people asking they see people parking on the grass there, even though there's no parking on grass signs, they seem to be ignoring it. They make a request to come enforce it, and but then the response back from your department is no violations were reserved. Can you talk a little bit about that process? Timing-wise, sometimes a violation, you may get something, but by the time we're able to respond, they're already gone. What are we doing to address that kind of situation?
SPEAKER_01Um and I have an officer or or I have officers that are if I was fully staffed, let me start like this. If I was fully staffed, I would have officers that work till nine o'clock at night. And when the gate thing at the skate park comes into play, I'll extend those hours till probably eleven at night. Um, so a lot of those complaints that you're talking about where they say that there was no violation, we the complaint might have gone into the system, you know, at three o'clock in the afternoon on a Saturday when everybody was playing baseball, and maybe I didn't have anybody working, and we got that complaint on Monday morning and we went out there and there was no violation.
SPEAKER_03So so one of the things that residents can do for this, uh, Marshall, I guess is if they know that these offenses occur on a Saturday or on a Tuesday night or whenever it is, if they call the the number, the 2222 number, and let you know, hey, this is when I'm seeing these violations, then you can have somebody out there when the violations occur, right?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Or uh they could even put it in ESIS, there there's notes and they could say this this happens at this certain time. Or, you know, normally that's the time it happens. Or maybe, you know, we get uh complaints where uh a lady will call in and say, This is on they park here on the weekends and after six o'clock. Well, then we make a note and we, you know, when I have somebody working those hours, then we, or that day, then we go check that and we try to, if we know when the violation is normally occurring, then we can go out and address it.
SPEAKER_04Another question we have is is there a limit to how many vehicles one single house is allowed to have?
SPEAKER_01No, there is not.
SPEAKER_04It's a frequent complaint we get the mom and dad and daughter and son and you know, cousin may all live together in one house and they all have cars.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. And there's a lot of generational, you know, uh living um circumstances that go on today, and and that's what has created a lot of the issues with all the cars. And you know, and we go we'll have a citizen call and say, uh, my neighbor's parking in front of my house, and I'm like, uh, it's a public street.
SPEAKER_04It's a public street, and if it's not there longer than 48 hours.
SPEAKER_01Go park in front of their house.
SPEAKER_04I would say go ask your neighbor maybe you could park in front of your house, maybe start with a person.
SPEAKER_01And we do, we try to educate them and advise them that, you know, um try to talk to them and and and if everybody would just try to be a good neighbor and try to be stewards of their neighborhood and their community, that would help so much. And a lot of times the neighbors have already talked and it's it's you know, it's a dead thing when we get called in.
SPEAKER_04So that kind of leads into another question we have that uh on street parking, people may park on both sides of the street, and it makes it so narrow that only one car can pass at a time and hard when especially when you get close to intersections.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. And it uh causes a hazard for emergency equipment if we need to get a a large fire truck down that street. But unfortunately, unless there's no parking signs, now we've addressed some issues like in neighborhoods with a that are narrow with a curve or something, we've gone out and you know looked at it and had city transportation go out and post some no parking no parking signs so that uh we could we've got to be able to get emergency equipment into the neighborhood.
SPEAKER_03So sometimes when you become aware of these issues where even though there's not currently no parking signs, if you see a street that looks too narrow for an emergency vehicle to get down when park cars are parked on both sides, you'll reach out to transportation and ask them to examine it and consider putting no parking signs. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04One another question we had is what does parking look like on evening and weeking weekend hours? You briefly touched on that a little bit, but you said you'd like to get more staff, but what are our typical enforcement hours and hopefully we can expand that soon in the future?
SPEAKER_01I have an officer from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m. right now, except for I've got two vacant positions, and so that afternoon shift till 9 p.m. is uh not manned a lot of hours. And uh I do currently have somebody that works uh each day of the weekend. Um that that officer that works on Saturday and Sunday is also doing the prisoner transfers, and so a lot of their mornings are tied up like that, but then they're out until you know five in the afternoon checking on on parking violations.
SPEAKER_03You you've mentioned several times having uh vacant positions. How does somebody become a city marshal? And if if somebody was a licensed peace officer, say, and was retired and wanted to come back and work as a marshal, how would they go about doing that?
SPEAKER_01Well, um we have the openings posted on the Garland uh city website, and they would need to go to that website and uh we're trying to get it to other websites like Indeed and other recruiting areas, that they would need to fill out a application, and then when we get that, we would call them in for an interview. We do a three-person interview board and have them take the uh personal history packet and fill that out and we go from there.
SPEAKER_03And do you hire retired officers?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, they're the best, especially the garland ones, because they already know everything. They already know the city government and they know most of the people, and they know, you know, if somebody calls in and says on this street, they say, Yeah, I know that street, because I was a police officer for 20 years, you know, here in this city. So yeah, the the the retired garland officers, please, please, I need you.
SPEAKER_04So and that's great. I'd love to have a full staff, you know, and see manager. I'd love to staff up as soon as possible because this is we're working on it. Working on it. I that's what I like to hear. A few more questions just about the parking, because I know that's our favorite topic that we love. That uh what about roll-off dumpsters parked in this placed in the street? How long can those remain? Do you guys deal with that, or is that more of a code violation?
SPEAKER_01Um it is uh it it it's a it's sticky because you know we have to give them an opportunity. I think we allow them to be there the 48 hours. And um somebody a lot of people take advantage of that, you know. And and and a lot of people they can't get the job done in that link.
SPEAKER_04Get your home remodeling done in 48 hours, right?
SPEAKER_01If you put it in your driveway, then you're okay.
SPEAKER_04Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01But on the public street, you we cannot have that.
SPEAKER_03So in those cases, a lot of times you'll go to the door, knock on the door, and tell them, hey, we'll need to move that out of the street and put it into the driveway.
SPEAKER_01And with work trucks too. Like if somebody's getting a new roof on their house, if they're actively working, we'll let that oversized work truck with all that equipment set there while they're working, but you know, we don't want them to leave it overnight or, you know, for an extended period of time.
SPEAKER_04And I had someone call me up one time, I was reading your parking regulations and you almost like I can't park my moving van there on the street. It'll ticket me. And I'm like, we'll let you move in or out of your house. Don't worry about that. That you're actively there.
SPEAKER_01Right. Just yesterday, as a matter of fact, we have a uh citizen that's moving out of the apartments right here, and she brought one of those, or she was having a pod delivered, and she said, What can I do? Where can I put that? And we went over to the Patty Grenville and spoke with those people and arranged for her to have a spot in their parking lot just for the weekend. They're gonna dump it today, they're gonna bring it, drop it off, and she's gonna load it up over the weekend and it's gonna leave Monday morning.
SPEAKER_04That's great. We're willing to work with them on that. That's right.
SPEAKER_01And I I mean, one of my lieutenants went out and met with her, showed her exactly where it needed to be parked, and emphasized the fact that that needs to be gone Monday morning.
SPEAKER_04Yes. Or else we're putting a barnacle on it, right? There you go. Well well, Judy, we appreciate you being here, and we certainly thank the city marshal's office for their service to Garland. And we know that the Marshall's office plays a critical role in maintaining safety, accessibility, quality of life, and especially through fair and consistent parking enforcement. Uh we want to ask all of our citizens go to garlandx.gov if you want to learn more information about our city marshal's office, even more information about our parking enforcement programs. And remember that new episodes of Fifth and State come out every first Monday of the month. Leave us a review on Spotify, on iTunes Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, even YouTube or whatever you get your podcasts. And uh, I'm Mayor Dylan Hedrick. Good night, garland.