Among the parking citations Franklin County initially covered for Commissioner Erica Crawley was a $580 ticket for parking in an accessible space reserved for people with disabilities.
Crawley recently reimbursed the county $1,420 for that citation and 16 others incurred on a county vehicle used by her and other members of her office in 2023 and 2024. That the citations included a ticket for parking in an accessible spot and that Crawley was the driver was first reported by 10TV.
"Yes, I take responsibility for not seeing the sign. The fine was reimbursed," Crawley said in a statement.
Deputy County Administrator Kris Long, who was overseeing the county's fleet of vehicles at the time, told Crawley that because she's an elected official Crawley didn't
have to pay the county for the cost of the parking citations, according to a county spokesperson.
"The Employee Handbook applies to employees, which requires reimbursement," Crawley said in a statement. "For county elected officials, utilizing county vehicles for county business, our interpretation was that the county would pay. That was an erroneous interpretation, for which we apologize."
The parking ticket issue emerged as Crawley faces questions on a variety of topics after she filed a complaint with the Columbus Office of the Inspector General alleging Columbus police officers treated her unfairly at a summer concert. In late September, 10TV and other media outlets reported on the tense interaction at the concert.
While looking into the officers' conduct, the Columbus Office of the Inspector General drafted a referral on Crawley to the Ohio Ethics Commission for possible ethics law violations for accepting VIP tickets to the Salute 250 concert. Crawley, a Navy veteran, took a handful of guests to the July 2 Post Malone concert after the county contributed $250,000 to the event, which helped pay for several thousand free tickets for veterans and their families.
Crawley attacked the inspector general for the decision at the County Commissioners' meeting on Oct. 6 and said she has been unfairly placed under a microscope for exercising a right to file a complaint. She maintains that police working special duty at the concert treated her and her group, multiple Black women, unfairly and that has been lost in recent discussions.
"I've never claimed that public officials should be above scrutiny," Crawley said at the Commissioners' meeting last week. "When legitimate concerns are raised about matters within my responsibility, I will answer them. I have separately addressed the most recent questions that have been raised regarding county vehicles."
Government and politics reporter Jordan Laird can be reached at jlaird@dispatch.com. Follow her on X, Instagram and Bluesky at @LairdWrites.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: New details emerge about Erica Crawley's parking tickets paid by Franklin County
