City Makes It Easier to Appeal Citations

More than just annoyed over getting three parking tickets in 11 days, Ed Nall dreaded the distance he would have to travel to contest them.

Until this week, the 74-year-old Van Nuys resident would have had to go to West Los Angeles or downtown for a hearing.

“It wouldn’t be satisfactory to have to go all the way down to L.A.,” he said. “I don’t think anybody wants to drive these freeways just for a parking ticket.”

Views like Nall’s are why the city Department of Transportation on Tuesday opened the San Fernando Valley Parking Citation Administrative Hearing Office at 14428 Hamlin St., Suite 230.

Staff at the modest, second-story office a few blocks from the main cluster of municipal offices, will conduct scheduled citation hearings as well as special hearings for those whose cars were seized by the city.

Hours are 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Marshall Abeles, 84, greeted the opening with enthusiasm. The Van Nuys man, represented by his nephew/lawyer Todd L. Melnik, brought photographs to be used as evidence.

He is fighting a ticket he got for parking his vehicle, corrected stickered with a handicapped permit, just over the painted line of another parking space.

“They’ve got $330 that belongs to me,” he said. Told he was helping break in the new office, he added: “I do appreciate not having to go so far.”

Hearings must be arranged in advance by calling the Parking Violations Bureau at (818) 901-7027, (310) 659-5561, (213) 623-6533 or TDD (213) 623-7046.

Office manager Connie Ingersoll said the city projects 200 to 300 hearings a month in the Valley office.

Things have started slowly this week, she said, “but we expect with word of mouth that people will learn that we’re here.”

With a smile, she reminded future complainants that the new place has plenty of parking.

“The street has two-hour meters--and there’s no way your hearing’s going to take that long,” she said.