By City News Service
The Los Angeles City Council will give the broken parking meter ticket ban a final vote on Friday.The Los Angeles City's Council's Transportation Committee voted today to do away with a 2010 policy that makes it illegal to park at broken meters, while leaving room for the city to alter course later if needed.
The motion is now headed for a vote by the full City Council at a special Friday meeting. If approved then, the policy could be lifted immediately.
Department of Transportation staff, including several parking meter technicians, defended the policy to ticket those who park at broken meters, saying that before it was put in place, people looking to avoid paying for parking used to jam the devices with paper clips or cover them up with plastic bags to make them appear non-operational.
In the past, parking meter vandalism "was unfortunately very rampant," said Dan Mitchell, a senior transportation engineer in the Department of Transportation.
The technicians told the committee that more broken meters means less revenue for the city, with one declaring, "Everyone loves a working parking meter."
Councilman Paul Koretz added vandalism of parking meters was "part of the business model" for "renegade valets" who intentionally broke meters and commandeered the spaces to increase their inventory of parking spots.
But Koretz acknowledged the move to ticket people made them out to "look like monkeys" and lowered city officials' standing in the public's esteem.
Bonin conceded that as a recently elected councilman, he may be feeling the effects of a political campaign during which he was "bathed" in public hatred for the policy. But upon looking closer at the situation, he said he found that the installation of high-tech parking meters may have made vandalism more difficult anyway, making the law less relevant.
The committee's recommendation contains some caveats that would leave room for the city to reverse course, especially if lifting the policy results in driving up the rate of parking meter vandalism.
A recently approved bill authored by Assemblyman Mike Gatto would prevent cities from ticketing vehicles at broken meters starting in January, if signed by the governor.
Bonin's Transportation Committee voted to rush a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown in advance of the upcoming City Council vote to urge that he veto Gatto's bill, which would take away the city's ability to resume the policy in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment