With parking citations issued daily at Fresno State, and with public-record information being unavailable despite several attempts and a lack of communcation from Fresno State officials, there are more questions than answers for the University Police Department.
An initial investigation conducted by The Collegian to find where the citation money is going began with an attempt to speak with pubic information officer Amy Armstrong.
With Armstrong out of the office for a week, The Collegian was directed to traffic operations employee Matt Babick, who was also out of the office for the week.
Without any response to emails and voicemails, The Collegian went to the traffic operations department office and spoke with traffic supervisor, John Hung. Hung wasn’t able to provide information, but said he would pass the request along to Babick and have him call The Collegian back.
When Babick returned to his office, he did make a call to a Collegian reporter, and said he would be able to provide the information within 24 hours.
Five days after not receiving the requested information, The Collegian contacted Babick again, who then said he had forwarded the requests to Fresno State Chief of Police David Huerta.
The Collegian made several attempts to contact Huerta, but his assistant didn’t return calls, and the Fresno State communications department didn’t return a voicemail from a Collegian reporter asking for help and explaining the difficulty they were having acquiring the necessary information for the story.
After calling Huerta’s assistant one more time, she answered, but transferred The Collegian’s reporter back to Amy Armstrong who was now back in the office.
In addition, simultaneous efforts to gain statistics from the ASI senator for parking and traffic were unsuccessful. An ASI communications assistant said the senator was unable to answer the questions asked, and she was trying to find someone qualified to answer questions, then ultimately directed The Collegian to Amy Armstrong.
After being redirected several times and attempting to speak with more than five separate sources, The Collegian was able to interview both Armstrong and Huerta, who answered questions but were never able to provide sound information or documentation regarding the actual dispersion of the money collected for parking citations.
The difficulty in gathering information showing where the money from parking citations is going provides more questions than answers. The Collegian will continue to work with the traffic operations department and will make students aware of any new information or developments.
