By PAUL KIRBY
Freeman staff
pkirby@freemanonline.com; twitter.com/PaulatFreeman

KINGSTON, N.Y. — Just two weeks into his new job as a part-time parking enforcement officer for the city, Jeremy Blaber slapped a ticket on a 2008 blue Subaru on Wall Street.

A week later, the 24-year-old city resident spotted the same car parked at an expired meter, again on Wall Street. Same result: another parking ticket slapped on the windshield.

The owner of the car, Mayor Shayne Gallo, said on Thursday that he was guilty of the parking violations and paid $40 in fines.

“It was a typical scenario,” Gallo said. “I thought I had put enough (quarters) in the meter, and obviously I didn’t. I learned an expensive lesson.”

Gallo, who took office Jan. 1, said he was on city business both times.

Regarding Blaber, Gallo said the parking enforcement officer is being “very efficient in the performance of his duties. Good job, Jeremy.”

Blaber, who worked on Gallo’s election campaign last year, said he didn’t know the car was the mayor’s when he issued the first ticket but that he was aware of it when he issued the second.

“When Mayor Gallo hired me, he said it was all about fairness,” Blaber said.

Blaber said that when a car owner recently argued with him over a ticket, he was able to say he had just ticketed the mayor’s car.

“He felt good about that — that it was being enforced all the way around,” Blaber said. Continued...

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Blaber salary for the part-time work is $14,600 per year, and he must pass a civil service exam in March to keep the job.

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