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Listener Mark sent Dori an email asking Dori Monson Show fans to weigh in on whether it’s okay to give away pre-paid parking passes in front of a parking lot.

Mark explained that he had bought a ticket package for an Everett Silvertips hockey game at an auction when he realized he had more parking passes than he needed for the garage across the street. When he tried to give the parking passes away as a good deed near the parking lot, the parking lot manager said it was illegal to give tickets away because the parking garage is owned by Snohomish County, and giving away passes costs the county money. The manager said he’d confiscate their tickets if they kept doing it.

“Nowhere on there does it say its nontransferable,” said Mark.

Originally he tried to pay it forward coffee-shop style by giving the passes to the parking garage attendant to give out. She said she couldn’t give the passes away.

“I thought, why can’t I just go down to the front of the parking garage,” said Mark, “and flag down a car and say hey, it’s free?”

As he was on the sidewalk giving away his second parking pass, a man who said he was the parking garage manager said what Mark was doing was illegal.

“He said it was going to be lost revenue for the garage,” said Mark. “He was very upset, and very sure of himself that he had the authority to make my life miserable.”

Mark Thunberg, , said that although the parking garage manager had no authority to take away their Silvertips tickets, it’s still illegal to give away the tickets.

Thunberg says the agreement they have with the Comcast Arena is such that only premium ticket holders get the parking passes. The Snohomish County garage sells the rest of the parking passes for about five dollars.

“We have a contract,” he said.

It wasn’t clear if Thunberg would follow up with the parking garage manager who threatened to take Mark’s tickets away, but he was very clear on the county’s policy: nobody can give someone else a pass that they paid for, and County employees can’t take away game tickets as punishment.

“That’s fine if you want to follow up,” said Thunberg. “We have no authority to take away tickets.”

Mark felt terrible that he did something illegal without knowing it, but he also thinks that this rule is unfair.

Dori, on the other hand, thinks Snohomish County is sending the wrong message. He thinks they are essentially penalizing carpoolers – and people trying to do good deeds.

“Why punish someone who’s carpooling and being efficient, and just being a good guy,” said Dori. “It does sound like this is government just trying to stop people from being good people.”

Now Dori wants you to weigh in. Read his letter and decide:

Mark’s letter:

A group of us purchased 12 tickets (that came with 6 parking passes) for the Silvertips Hockey game this last Friday (01/18). Tickets and passes were handed out earlier that week and I noticed I would have (2)two parking passes left over.

As I was driving up to the entrance of the parking garage (on the corner of Oakes Ave and Wall St in Everett) I asked the ticket taker a quick question,”Can you do me a favor” but before I could continue she said , “We are not allowed to hand out unused parking passes.” I was shocked, here I thought I could “pay it forward” to two cars behind me with free parking. Why waste the parking passes, right?

So after parking, my kids and I walk up the ramp to wait for our friends to arrive. Here my children and I were at the top of the entrance and I thought… Why couldn’t I just go up to these cars myself and offer these passes to them? My friends met me and agreed this was a great idea. So I began flagging down a couple of cars while holding out the passes.

The first car took one and was very appreciative. As I approach the second car they mention they already had a pass. But then I heard someone loudly say, “Sir…
Sir” behind me. He continued, “What you are doing is illegal, you are not allowed to hand out unused parking passes.” He went on to say that would cause lost revenue for the parking garage and that he let the one car through but would not allow another, if I gave that last ticket away. He also mention that he was the parking garage manager and that he had the power (and/or authority) to confiscate our tickets to the hockey game.

Not only did that catch me off guard, but I felt horrible, like I did something wrong. Here I am with my two kids and some good friends and I’ve just been reprimanded for trying to do something nice. Needless to say this had weighed heavy on my mind over the last couple of days.

Here I was trying to teach my kids a great lesson about paying it forward and was told I was doing something illegal. Is it illegal?

If I purchase tickets and passes, can’t I give them to anyone I want? I know many people sell their unused tickets legally… I was giving them away. I thought I should share my experience with you. What would your listeners have done?

What you’re saying:

Robert James Guerra: Everett sucks i grew up there

Michael Munsey: Unless the tickets explicitly say they are non-transferable, then they are transferable.

Bryan McNally: This most likely has to do with the Arena Policy on solicitation which reads and I quote –

“Solicitation of any kind on Arena property, including the distribution of promotional materials, without the express consent of Arena management is strictly prohibited”.

Betsy Bachhuber Phariss: Seems like someone should be able to use them.

Steven Wagner: Its not illegal to give something away, Confiscating something that was legally bought is a crime and a law suit waiting to happen.

Roger Westby: I would ask for the City of Everett law that specifically states this. The manager should know the law number. If the tickets are non-transferrable, then they should state that on the ticket and also the law number.