Broken Parking Metering Tickets In LA Should Be Banned, New Councilman Says

A brand new LA councilman knows how to make himself popular in his fledging days in office. Get rid of some parking tickets, of course!

Westside Councilman Mike Bonin, also Transportation Committee chairman, used his first motion Tuesday to say that LA drivers parked at broken meters should not receive parking tickets. Scroll down for the full motion below.

"Motorists and small business owners felt they were being punished because a meter was broken," Bronin wrote in his motion. "They felt like the City was working against them, instead of for them."

A California bill, which was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last summer and became effective Jan. 1, allows drivers to park for free at broken meters for the allotted time. But the LA City Council voted in December to override the new state law so the city could keep giving tickets at LA's broken meters.

City transportation officials said at the time that tickets issued to cars parked at broken meters bring in about $5 million a year in revenue for the city. Councilmembers also feared that ending the city policy would encourage vandalism of meters.

Since then, the city has replaced it old, coin-only meters with new meters that accept credit cards and that signal a technician right away if a meter is broken. The new technology makes LA's broken-meter ticketing policy unnecessary because broken meters are now quickly fixed, Bonin said.

Meanwhile, Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Burbank, has introduced a bill in the California legislature that would prohibit cities from giving tickets at broken parking meters. LA Councilwoman Jan Perry, who voted in Dec. against ticketing at broken meters, has also tried to ban such tickets.

Meter Motion (07.02.13) by CouncilDistrict11