Briefs

Downtown Portland

City reimburses $4,064 in fees to holiday parkers

The Portland Office of Transportation has reimbursed $4,064 to people who paid for parking downtown using their credit cards Dec. 26.

City offices were closed that day, and parking was supposed to be free at city meters. But 302 of the 1,100 meters in the central city were mistakenly programmed to collect money, either in cash or by credit card.

Portland parking managers blamed the public relations black eye on Parkeon, the private company that programs the machines. They'll be asking Parkeon to reimburse the city for the $100 or so in added fees it had to pay to reverse the charges on credit-card transactions and for the cost of staff time to fix the problem.

Parking manager Ellis McCoy said the city avoided similar problems on Monday, also an official holiday.