Lancaster resident says treasurer broke law by refusing coins as payment for fine

[TexasTowelie]

Alfredo Santiago agrees it was a valid parking ticket.

The 34-year-old Broad Street resident also admits he was working out some frustration when he took a bag of loose change to the city treasurer’s office, at 39 W. Chestnut St., to pay the $20 fine.

But Santiago says the clerk accepting payments at the office on Dec. 19 broke the law when she refused to take his money.

“The lady didn’t want to count it up, so she wouldn’t take my ticket,” he says. “You can’t refuse me just because you don’t want to be inconvenienced.”

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/legal-tender-city-resident-says-treasurer-broke-law-by-refusing/article_9851d832-c954-11e6-84ff-9340a53b3e0f.html

[shenmue]

1. No fair

[Sherman A1]

2. I don't think so, but could be wrong

cash must be accepted, but coins from what I understand can be refused as they are not considered legal tender.

He should show up with a stack of $1.00 bills and may a few quarters at the end and probably would have gotten it all done.

[shraby]

3. Coins are legal tender also, it's against the law to make accurate photos of them because they

are legal coinage.

[MichMan]

4. I would count it in front of him very meticulously while he had to wait.

Obviously Mr Santiago is just being an ass by paying a $20 fine with a mixed bag of pennies, nickels and dimes. He most likely would never take a big bag of loose change to a grocery store and dump it out telling the cashier to deal with it. He was mad he got a ticket, so thought he would make a spectacle of himself. Probably voted for Trump

The article doesn't say, but how many other people trying to do business with the city would have been waiting behind him?

Now if I was the clerk, and IF it didn't inconvenience others, I would very meticulously & slowly count it penny by penny , making him stand there in front of me the entire time wasting his time as much as he was mine. In fact, if other customers came up with business, I might stop the transaction, and wait on them before resuming. Maybe if he had to stand there for an hour or so, he might rethink his stubbornness.