To the editor:
    
I recently witnessed a parking incident in the city that has me aggravated, as it appears to show a double standard in favor of city employees.  
    
On Tuesday, September 14, my parked car, with an expired registration tag, was marked for towing by a parking official. Of course, I pled for a fine instead of the towing, but she pointed out correctly so that she had to enforce the rules for all citizens.  
    
While waiting at the curb with my husband, a city employee drove up in his private vehicle and parked illegally. He got out of his car, patted the Parking Official on the shoulder and said he would be back from City Hall in a little while. When I asked her why he did not get a ticket, she answered, We do not give tickets to Alexandria city employees. 
    
When I saw the city employee return to his vehicle later, I commented that it did not seem right, to which he just laughed and drove off.
    
Later that afternoon, the parking enforcers supervisor told me that her employee had made a mistake. The same afternoon a deputy chief in the police department called me and repeated that the parking official had made a mistake and confirmed that they always give tickets to city employees.
    
Because the parking officer seemed intelligent and to know her job thoroughly, I find it hard to imagine that she did not truly believe that she was correct not to ticket the city employee. I feel that she must have been trained or told by a superior as to who would be ticketed and who would not.  
    
In any event, as both a business and property owner, I am angry as the incident seems to be both a double standard and unethical and I would like to know that that is not the case.

Amanda Lasker,
Alexandria