Pay Monrovia Fines Online - Maybe

Monrovians can now pay parking citations and maybe code violation fines online using a new service the city is using called EZPay Corp ( http://www.ezpaycorp.com/ ), which says it offers "global payment solutions," though apparently global is only for the United States, or maybe the U.S. and Canada.

I applaud Monrovia's move to make it easier for people to pay their fines, and I'm sure EZPay Corp is a reputable firm, but I really think the city should lean on the company to improve its website.

Here are my gripes:

1. This is a small one, but the home page is designed to sell the EZPay Corp service to governments, not to make it easy for people to pay their fines. It could be a lot clearer.

2. A slightly bigger gripe. The city should be able to link from its website right to the Monrovia, California section of the website rather than force people who are trying to pay their bills to select their state and governmental agency.

3. On the front page there are seven payment options to choose from, including - weirdly - the "Deputy Collectors Office of MA," but if you click on the Service tab, you get six payment options to choose from. Where did the "Ordinance Violations" payment option go?

4. Okay, back to the home page. I pretend I have a code violation (I'm illegally keeping boa constrictors in my backyard or something), so to pay my fine I click the "Ordinance Violations" link and then from the list of fifty states I pick "California" and then "Monrovia" and press the "Continue" button.

What do I get? I get a page titled "Parking Enforcement Services."

Huh?

I'm a code violator! I'm keeping boa constrictors, remember? I'm not a parking violator. What am I doing on this page? Well, as I poke around it appears there is no Ordinance Violations page, so ... what? Do code violators have to pay parking fines instead?

In fact, I try several of the payment options, for Local Taxes, Water Bills, Utility Bills. It doesn't seem to matter. They all take me to the Parking Enforcement Services page.

Okay, let's pretend that I actually did have a parking ticket, so that means I'm on the right page. But now it wants to know what state I live in! Hello?! Right at the top of the page it says "Online Parking Citation Information for Monrovia, California." Uhh, my state is, like, CALIFORNIA, so why are you asking me my state when you've got it printed right on the same page?

Also, remember how the system forced me to pick one of the 50 United States? But now that it has established that I need to pay a fine in the United States ... it lets me pick Canadian provinces! Weird.

Alternatively, I can plug in my "ticket number," which it also calls a "citation number" just to make things interesting.

This is not user-friendly web design, and Monrovia should complain.

- Brad Haugaard