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Here at LAist, we are all for government contracts. After all, It makes fiscal sense, especially with the ominous budget cuts on their way next week. From medical benefits to office supplies, vendors save the tax dollars. Period.
But there is another way vendors cost you money in the City of Los Angeles and that comes in the form of fighting a parking ticket.
Before we move on, you must know that the officer who writes your parking ticket is a city employee. The people who take care of citation management are employees of a third party. In this case, that would be Lockheed Martin, widely known for weapons manufacturing and uhhh... welfare management.
Keeping in mind that Lockheed Martin plays judge and jury to your parking ticket contestations (something very personal to you and your wallet), do they really represent the city? Fighting Parking ticket stories after the jump.
Here are some annoying stories of fighting tickets:
We Cashed Your Check, But You Have Failed to Pay
A ticket is issued and the offender accepts his parking error. He pays in mid-February, the check is finally cashed around March 23, and the city writes a letter on April 9th saying it was never paid. Yes, sometimes things overlap, but 17 days?
X-Ray Vision
Person parks in preferential parking district without a permit, gets ticketed. Finds that sign stating the need for a permit is covered in graffiti and under a burnt out street light. Takes picture, fights it. Loses on round one. Round two, fights again and loses on basis that no photo was provided (it was provided in round one) and that "it is the responsibility that you check every sign on the street."
Two City Employees as Witness
Person parks at FAILED meter. Unsure if this is legal or not, calls number on meter to report it and ask if it is legal or not. Traffic Officer comes by and says they can park there for one hour, so person goes to lunch knowing that two city employees said it was okay to park there legally (it is actually not legal). Person comes out to a parking ticket, but is confident they will win the fight with the employee ID number and name of the person in hand. Wrong. Letters coming back from the city said the ticket was valid because the meter never failed in the first place. Uhhh, the Traffic Officer was right there and saw it failing.
What's your story? Has Lockheed Martin represented the city in an equitable manner?
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Is it not legal to park at a failed meter? Why does the city of LA have so many failed meters. I work downtown and would guess at least 1/3 of the meters I park at are failed. I never get a failed meter in Santa Monica or Redondo Beach, two other cities with meters I park in regularly.
It's not legal to park at a failed meter? I asked a meter maid and he said it was... Where are you getting your info, Behrens?!
Greg if you read the last paragraph you will see that Zach did even more due diligence than you did to get the info. If you wanna risk it, go for it, but you cant say that you havent been warned - by someone who doesnt have a dog in the fight.
It is NOT legal to park at a broken meter. It's a common misconception that when the meter's busted that you get a free ride, and the City of LA/Lockheed Martin have no reason to clarify since they are making so much money off of it!
I have a suspicion I know why there are so many failed meters in Los Angeles as I work downtown and I used to park in those meters. Here's my story:
As I was parking on a meter and getting my things gathered to go out and fill the meter, a homeless man beat me to it. As I got out of my car, I noticed he was tapping the meter. He had a method of "filling" up the meter by pushing something in the coin slot with a bent paper clip. Whatever he did, he filled it to maximum hour capacity and proceeded to ask me for the change I would've placed in the meter.
If these meters are so easy to be tampered with, it's not a surprise there are so many failed ones in L.A. Why are they so easy to tamper? Because like most things in the City of L.A. -- the deciding managers choose the supplier based on whichever company provides the "lowest bid" in contract negotiations. Low bid = Low quality = Happy corporation with a million-dollar contract with the City of L.A.
I recently moved here from DC. There, Lockheed had the franchise on hundreds of red light cameras. Lockheed is paid a percentage of each ticket issued. It turns out that, once the cameras were installed, the yellow light time period ("phase") was shortened, which resulted in many more drivers (who may not have been doing anything wrong) being caught for running the red lights. This also caused a very dangerous situation, since the previous yellow light phase was designed for safety reasons. So Lockheed profits were given priority over safety. Surprise surprise.
Class action suit?
If it was legal to park at a failed meter, I'd just carry around a sledgehammer in my car instead of change.
Last time I asked the ticket guy, he confirmed, that You can PARK in a failed meter for the time that is allowed to park in there.
Meaning that, if it's a 30 min zone, you can park for free at the failed meter, but you need to move your car after 30 mins.
It worked for me, usually on mondays, a lot of meters are out of order.
Have you ever dropped a quarter into a perfectly functioning meter, and then suddenly the meter flashes "FAIL". WTF? Next time this happens, I'm ticketing the city.
Yeah #10, that's happened to me a few times. What's the worst part is that it's usually your last quarter so now your out of change to park somewhere else! I think this happens when the meter fills up right? Maybe they should make bigger coin hoppers.
First, it is NOT legal to park at a failed meter - you risk it every time you do.
Second, Lockheed doesn't actually decide if the ticket is valid or not - there is a process with actual city employees who are "hearing officers" that listen to your side of the ticket. A better statement would be to say that Lockheed "processes" your parking ticket. You really never have to pay or fight them.
More parking info here and on meters here.
I got a ticket outside the Downtown L.A. Library on 5th Street for stopping at a curbside Library Drop Box to return books. There were no signs before or at the drop box, but 50 feet down the road there was a sign that said no stopping during certain hours. I fought the ticket through two hearings and lost -- the official explanation, which is patently absurd, is that drivers are bound by any sign that they could have seen if they had driven around the entire block before stopping. I went to the head of the Library, who went to a City Councilman, who had the city change the signs to allow library patrons to stop at the drop box without falling into a trap. I still had to pay the $61 ticket!
IT IS LEGAL TO PARK At a failed meter for the alloted time. I park at meters daily and always the failded ones when available... but sometimes meters will "fix" themselves causing a zero time reading. but if they are fixed by an actual person while you are parked at it they should put the maximum time on the meter. But the system is shit... and I supposedly owe $256 for thier mistakes: it went something like this: (its hard to make short but i'll do my best)
1. i get expired meter ticket.
2. i pay ticket. $35
3. they say ticket was never paid.
4. i provided proof (copy of check) that ticket was paid.
5. they say they will fix it.
6. i get collection notice for ticket, now @ $84.
7. i provide proof that i paid ticket.
8. they say it will be fixed
9. i go to renew registration 4 month later, low and behold parking ticket is on record still.
10. i don't get registration and in the next two weeks i get 6 expired registration tickets (I have to park at meters, i figured i could fight them) all while trying to get them to take the ticket off of my record as i was told.
11. they finally remove ticket.
12. i go to get registration..but I can't because the franchise tax board in sac town has a hold on the registration because of the ticket now. they need proof form LA that ticket was paid.
13. a bunch of other calls.. all holds get cleard.
14. get registration with max late fees (instead of @$60 I paid about $150).
15. send in copy of registration with $10 for each expired reg ($60). (can pay $10 for $25 ticket if provide proof of reg within 30 days)
16. they say i didn't send the copy of registration and that I still owe the extra $15 per ticket.
17. while I am trying to fight this each ticket goes up to $56.
18. collections
19. bullshit
20. lies
21. incompetence
well all in all i have spent hours and hours dealing with this (it has gone on for over a year now) all from their mistake of not crediting my ticket and not removing when they were supposed to. i still owe $256 after paying over $200 already.. and all this for what should have been a $60 registration fee.
It seems dropping dead in your car is no excuse for parking illegally.
Man found dead in car after it was cited...
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/07/24/metro/me-ticket24
I wish them luck collecting on this citation though.