Transportation officials were ordered by Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office today to tally up and refund each $73 parking ticket that was wrongly issued to people who parked on streets that were not swept by city workers.
The ticketswere issued nearly a year after Garcetti set a new policy relaxing enforcement of no-parking rules on streets during days when city crews fail to stick to the posted street sweeping schedules.
Residents can look up their streets on the Bureau of Street Services website to find out if they will be receiving the scheduled sweeping service.
If not, they are free to park on the side of the street that was to be cleaned without receiving a ticket.
Garcetti touted the policy at the time as a “common sense” step.
However, some parking citation officers who were issuing tickets to cars parked on streets not being swept appeared this week not to be aware of the rule, telling CBS2 reporter David Goldstein they were never told of the change.
Garcetti responded to the report today saying “it’s wrong and everyone is going to get a refund.”
Representatives of the mayor’s office responded sternly to the report, with spokesman Yusef Robb saying people should not be getting tickets when street sweepers do not plan to show up, and “we’re outraged this was not the case.”
After learning of the bogus tickets, “we spoke to our department and the problem’s going to be fixed, and bad tickets are going to be refunded. Period,” Robb said.
Robb made the assurance that city staff are ”cross-referencing” information about the tickets and “at the end of the day, people who got the wrongly issued tickets will get a refund.”
Robb said he does not know how many tickets were issued since the start of the rule change on Dec. 1. There appeared to be a “communication breakdown between departments,” he said.
The issue came to light just as Garcetti announced new efforts today to pave more streets with less money, with Garcetti saying “we’re going to break down silos between departments and work more efficiently.”
Angelenos can find out whether the parking rules on their streets are not in effect by visiting http://bss.lacity.org/restricted_parking_sweeping_routes.cfm.
A list of parking tickets that may be eligible for a refund is at http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/11/11/cbs2-investigates-la-parking-officers-caught-handing-out-bogus-tickets.
