Collections for parking tickets farmed out to Dallas firm
By JAMIE WETHERBE Special to the Daily Press
(Editor’s note: This is the first article in a series that examines at the multi-million dollar business of parking tickets in Santa Monica.)
By Jamie Wetherbe
Special to the Daily Press
For most Santa Monicans, forgetting to pay a parking ticket means higher fines, the boot, even a tow.
But one Santa Monican has learned how to fight the system — and he’s let $450 in parking citations go unpaid without hearing a word from City Hall. His secret? The out-of-state plates on his SUV.
The resident, who asked not to be named, racked up more than 10 parking tickets in the past year and hasn’t paid a dime. Not only hasn’t he been contacted by City Hall, he also hasn’t been hit with late fees.
Not so with the same resident’s second car. The fines for two unpaid parking tickets on the second vehicle — which has California plates — have doubled to $94 a piece because of his delinquency.
While city officials said out-of-state cars should be booted and towed after five citations, they admitted there’s little else they can do to catch scofflaws. When most tickets go unpaid after 90 days, a hold is put on the renewal of the car owner’s driver’s license at the California Department of Motor Vehicles. But for out-of-staters, that’s not standard procedure.
Santa Monica Police Department Lt. Frank Fabrega said traffic service officers carry machines that indicate if there are five or more outstanding tickets issued in Santa Monica or West Hollywood to a particular license plate. If there are five or more, traffic officers contact the California DMV to verify the unpaid tickets before they boot or tow the car.
The process takes 30 seconds and is done regardless of where the car’s license plates are from, Fabrega added.
“Could be California, could be any state,” he said, adding the equipment notifies officers if a vehicle should be booted or towed.
Parking tickets are expected to generate more than $10 million in revenue in Santa Monica this year. The undertaking is so huge that City Hall contracts collection operations out to a Dallas, Texas-based company with a Los Angeles branch that keeps $1 or more for each ticket that’s paid.
And there’s no sign of things slowing down. With more people moving to Santa Monica, space is increasingly scarce. New meters are being added, and meter rates and parking fines have increased this year.
In the meantime, the Santa Monica resident with the out-of-state plates said he’s saving his money for more pressing matters.
“I feel like I’m getting away with something, you know, here in Santa Monica that’s unheard of,” he said Monday. “It really doesn’t matter when I pay them, does it? It’s still going to be the same amount of money.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 30, 2004. Read the original PDF.