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A disabled Chautauqua County resident has received more than a dozen traffic citations in New York City, even though the city admits he should not have been ticketed in the first place, because the license plate being cited is on a city bus.
Chautauqua County Clerk Greg Carlson sent an email to the New York City Department of Finance and cc'd The Post-Journal/OBSERVER in the email.
"Mr. Gary L. Allette is a disabled Navy veteran, and lifelong resident of Chautauqua County, N.Y. He was referred to me by our Congressional Constituent Assistant because he received a parking ticket for a violation occurring on 3/1/2026 (billed on 5/7/2026)," Carlson wrote.
Along with the email, he sent three attachments.
One attachment is a copy of a letter from Carlson which states that Allette is being ticketed for a license plate that he does not have.
In fact, that license plate is from a bus operated by the New York City Transit Authority. Carlson submitted screen shots of the bus in question.
After receiving a copy of Carlson's letter, the New York City Department of Finance sent a letter back to Allette, which states he was not responsible for the fines previously incurred. A copy of that letter was also included in Carlson's email sent this week.
"We have received your request for a dismissal of the violations or notices of liability referenced above. The summons(es) referenced above were administratively granted. This means that you are not required to pay the summons(es) and you do not need to take any further action," the letter states, which was signed by Ryan K. Page with the Adjudication Division of the New York City Department Of Finance.
But Allette has continued to receive traffic citations.
"Since the 6/8/26 acknowledgment from NYC, Mr. Allette has received an ADDITIONAL THIRTEEN parking tickets (issued in sequence on: 8/10, 8/13, 8/17, 8/18, 8/21, 8/24, 8/27, 8/31, 9/1, 9/1, 9/2, 9/2, & 9/3). In EVERY new "NOTICE OF LIABILITY" issued to Mr. Allette is a picture of the SAME NYC TRANSIT AUTHORITY BUS. This is unconscionable and negligent," Carlson wrote in the email.
A copy of that third letter, which shows the new 13 citations, was also included in the email.
In the last couple of years, there have been concerns about either license plates being stolen and used on other vehicles or drivers modifying license plates with a new letter/number combination which ends up belonging to someone else.
While Carlson has insisted that no license plates surrendered in Chautauqua County have been stolen, he revamped the system to have surrendered plates immediately destroyed in view of a supervisor.
"Since I took office as the Chautauqua County Clerk on January 1st, I've spent countless hours disputing improperly billed toll fees and tickets. And 99% of them come from New York City. In the rare instance a constituent gets an erroneous ticket or toll from another city/state, it is simple to resolve and the error does not recur. This is never the case when the error originates in New York City. This is not an overstatement or hyperbole; these near constant and relentless erroneous bills have been a NIGHTMARE for so many of my constituents," Carlson wrote.
Allette's case is unique in that he is being written traffic tickets for a license plate that he doesn't have.
Carlson said these issues need to be fixed.
"I've tried to be professional and steadfast, and respond to each and every erroneous ticket and toll as it comes to my constituents. But I'm at my wits end, and it is painfully clear New York City is completely broken. The number of hours, and likely taxpayer dollars spent on NYC's continuous errors must be staggering, as we're only a small county in WNY and have dealt with a broken NYC system dozens of times," Carlson wrote. "This case, in particular, demonstrates the fraud, waste, abuse, and harassment (that) requires immediate attention. If a private citizen on the opposite end of the state can be repeatedly ticketed for a NYC TRANSIT AUTHORITY BUS by the New York City Department of Finance, even after reporting the error and receiving confirmation of the error, there should be an immediate and swift internal investigation."