Parking Tickets Add Up to Quotas

I read with interest Lynn Ellen’s letter concerning the ticket she received for parking in a handicapped zone even though she has a handicapped placard.

Parking ticket revenues have jumped from $18 million in 1985 to a current level of around $100 million yearly. Many innocent people account for this dramatic increase by choosing to pay unjust tickets instead of taking the time to fight them.

Why have parking revenues increased so dramatically? People are not parking illegally at an increased rate. In fact, because of the heavy-handed enforcement, they are probably much more careful than in 1985.

The main reason is the parking ticket quotas imposed upon the traffic officers.

Ms. Ellen is correct in her interpretation of state law. The traffic officer, Parking Administrator Robert Yates and Councilman Bernardi are off base. The California Vehicle Code says that a disabled person is exempt from most parking restrictions. A disabled person need not put money in a meter, observe any time limitations--including those associated with colored curbs--nor even move for a street sweeper.

Clearly, our city can afford a few stretches of dirty gutter if it allows a disabled person the freedom to function in our society in a way the rest of us take for granted.

That parking administrator Yates would not help Ms. Ellen is not surprising. After all, he was hired to maximize parking revenues when Lockheed IMS Co. was hired to institute their parking ticket scheme of aggressive enforcement and collection in 1985. However, I live in Councilman Bernardi’s district and I will certainly remember Ms. Ellen’s plight and Councilman Bernardi’s lack of assistance at election time.

KENNETH DINE, North Hollywood