LA Metergate

A private parking ticket company...a $113 million a year industry...a class-action lawsuit...even a PBS documentary called "Pain and Parking in Los Angeles."

The biggest scandal in LA should not be the mayor sleeping with a Telemundo news anchor, it should be the unmitigated orgy of parking tickets cluttering windshields across the city.

My own windshield has housed a few of those dubious doilies recently and I'm not happy. There is a street near where I work that has free two-hour parking with no meters. It's a long enough street so I can park there and move my car every two hours (more than the required 500 feet) and not have to pay to park all day. (I know, you're thinking what a cheapskate I am, but hey, I usually ride the Metro but when I don't: free beats the $5 a day lot nearby or the $55 monthly fee to park in the structure at my building. Plus, I get a nice walk from the car to work all throughout the day.)

Recently, though, LA parking authorities have ramped up enforcement on this street. One day last week I counted six parking enforcement vehicles within the three blocks from where I work to where I park. They lurk in the shadows, clock-watching, and waiting for you to leave your car for two hours and one minute. Then they give you a ticket.

My first thought is, don't the police have better things to do with their time? I hear there are a few gangs in LA. Upon further investigation, though, it's actually a private company who runs parking enforcement here. It used to be Lockheed-Martin until a few years ago. Now it's the Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Systems company. (Pardon a brief digression here: what's the problem with hiring a local company to do this? Why must we send money out of the state of California when it could just as easily stay here?)

Back to topic. The privatization of parking fines brings up several questions:

1.) Is the company's profitability tied to how many tickets they issue?
2.) Are their employees granted merit-based promotions?
3.) Where does the money go?

The answers to these questions are simple and a bit disturbing. The more tickets Affiliated Computer Systems issues, the more money they get. As they contribute to the success of the company, ACS employees move up the corporate ladder. (The primo position in LA is "booter." There are more than 200 of these employees; and since unpaid parking tickets eventually end up either being deducted from California state income tax refunds or added to California state license plate renewals, the booters tend to focus their efforts on out-of-state vehicles--forcing these people to pay if they want their cars back.)

The one bright spot is that while parking fines account for nearly 2% of the city's budget and Affiliated Computer Systems gets as much as three bucks per ticket, the administrative costs of processing an appeal are greater than what ACS would pocket if the fine is enforced. Meaning, even if one loses his appeal, he still costs the company money.

You can bet I'll appeal every single ticket I ever get.