Paul Rolly: Government messes up and Utah driver pays the price

Last May, as he was leaving his South Jordan workplace, Konnor Holdaway was pulled over by a South Jordan police officer.

Fair enough. He was missing his driver's side mirror and deserved a ticket.

But then the carnival began.

The officer told him he had an expired registration. He knew that couldn't be true because he had renewed it in January and had paid all his fees and taxes.

But the officer insisted records showed it was expired. The officer got suspicious and told him he either had stolen plates or stolen decals. He began interrogating Holdaway. When the motorist maintained there was some sort of mistake, the officer called for backup.

Holdaway was told to exit his vehicle and sit on the curb while the second officer searched his car. The whole time, the first officer kept pressing Holdaway as to where he got his plates and decals.

Holdaway repeatedly told the officer to check his registration, but the officer said the plates he had on file did not match the registration.

He had the car towed, leaving Holdaway stranded.

Holdaway walked to a TRAX station and rode to his home in downtown Salt Lake City. He got home at 10 p.m. after leaving work at 6:30 p.m.

It turns out the Division of Motor Vehicles had mistakenly registered his car under old plates that haven't been in existence for five years.

Holdaway was told to reregister and again pay the taxes. So he paid that on top of the towing fees and fine he had to fork over when his car was impounded. He was told to fill out some papers, and he would be refunded the costs of registering a second time in the same year.

That was three months ago. He has heard nothing from the DMV.

Then, last week, his car was stolen in Salt Lake City. It eventually was found by the city police at a 7-Eleven parking lot.

When he was called, he said he would be there in about 20 minutes. Ten minutes later, he got another call from the police saying the car couldn't be left unattended and had been towed.

That was Saturday morning, and the office he has to go to pay the $300 towing fee was closed for the weekend. He called the police to complain and was told he had to pay the towing fee then apply for a refund.

Wonder if the city will be quicker to respond than the DMV?

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Wasting precious campaign money? • When numerous high-profile Democrats recently received Republican congressional hopeful Mia Love bumper stickers, along with solicitation letters for contributions, campaign manager Dave Hansen quipped that her candidacy is an equal-opportunity political camp that gives everyone an opportunity to participate.

But Josh Kanter may be more equal than others.

He has received not one, not two, but three fundraising letters, each accompanied by a Love bumper sticker.

He doesn't even have that many cars.

Kanter notes that he is a registered Democrat who openly supported Rep. Jim Matheson in his race against Love two years ago, was Democratic gubernatorial candidate Peter Corroon's finance committee co-chair, founded the progressive Alliance for a Better Utah and doesn't agree with Love on most issues.

He also questions how fiscally responsible the GOP candidate is when she spends production and mailing costs on bumper stickers that never will be displayed.

prolly@sltrib.com —