Bird promises to pay $27,150 after losing fight over fines

The companies Bird and Lime introduced themselves with a scootandawe campaign in June, surprising the city as they left hundreds of electric scooters across Denver.

City workers promptly confiscated 264 of the batterypowered vehicles, saying that the companies were illegally keeping them in public spaces.

The confiscations came with tens of thousands of dollars in fines for the companies.

Three months later, the companies have reclaimed their scooters, but Bird hasn’t yet paid its fivefigure fine, according to city officials. The city is “working with Bird on final payment,” according to public works spokesperson Heather Burke.

The fines totaled $12,450 for Lime’s 83 scooters and $27,150 for Bird’s 181 scooters. Lime paid its citations, while Bird decided to appeal, according to city officials. Bird lost its appeal on Sept. 21.

“Bird is paying the fees,” read the entirety of a statement released by Mackenzie Long, a spokesperson for Bird, to The Denver Post on Wednesday.

Both companies were allowed to retrieve their scooters in June. It’s standard practice to release confiscated property pending appeals, according to Burke.

In a letter to the city, an attorney for Bird argued that the fine was too high. The letter claimed the company wasn’t storing its scooters on the street, which is verboten. Instead, it was placing them for rental. And the letter noted that the company’s workers only deployed its scooters on private property each morning, though riders often leave them on public property.

The arguments went back and forth for two months, with both parties filing motions for summary judgment and two briefs each. At one point, city officials broke out MerriamWebster for definitions of “store” and “ware.” And the parties got deep into the weeds about the word “encumbering.”

Ultimately, the hearing officer sided with the public works department. “Without prior authorization from the City, the storage of the Bird scooters on the public rightofway resulted in violations of the Ordinance,” M. Patrick Wilson wrote in his order.

Bird could appeal the case to district court, but city staffers have seen no indication that Bird will appeal, according to Burke.

Meanwhile, the city has established temporary rules that Bird, Lime, Razor, Uber and Lyft are now following for dockless bikes and scooters. They have paid $15,000 for permits plus $20 per bike and $30 per scooter.

About 1,750 scooters are expected to be on Denver’s streets by the end of this month. That has caused some confusion: City officials say that under existing laws, the scooters can only be used on sidewalks and not bike lanes.

City staffers are investigating whether there is a different interpretation of the law, or whether a change to the law is necessary, according to public works spokesperson Nancy Kuhn.