City Snafu Results in the Dismissal of Parking Tickets

Christmas has come early for dozens of people who received parking tickets in Los Angeles.

A snafu by the city’s political leaders and bureaucrats has left the city Department of Transportation with too few hearing examiners to handle all of the parking ticket appeals.

In the last two weeks, 152 motorists who showed up for their hearings only to find no hearing examiner have had their tickets and $16,300 in fines dismissed.

What’s worse, city transportation officials worry that if everyone contested their tickets, the city could have to dismiss hundreds of valid citations, potentially costing tens of thousands of dollars.

“It would definitely be a nightmare if everybody did that,” said Robert Andalon, a Department of Transportation manager.

The city hears appeals on about 45,000 of the 3.2 million tickets issued each year.

The Department of Transportation is supposed to have six full-time examiners. But four positions are vacant because of a hiring freeze approved by the mayor and City Council, and another examiner has just gone out on medical leave, according to documents obtained by The Times.

The Department of Transportation warned city leaders of the problem in September, but delays in a response led the department last week to issue a memo authorizing dismissals whenever examiners are unavailable.

A proposal to lift a hiring freeze for 10 part-time hearing examiners has gone through two council committees, and the full council may take it up before year’s end.

Even if the freeze is lifted, it will take at least a month to hire and train the new examiners, during which time dozens more tickets could be dismissed.

City officials said red tape and poor communication were to blame for the lapse. “What this highlights more than anything is that hiring freezes are not conducive to good management of departments,” said Councilman Bernard C. Parks.

Bill Fujioka, the city administrative officer who advises the mayor on financial issues, said he was not aware that tickets were being dismissed because of the shortage of examiners. “I got a parking ticket and it didn’t help me,” he said.

*

Inglewood Fined $50,000 for Self-Promotion of Its Leaders

Self-promotion is second nature for many politicians, but as practiced by the mayor and City Council members in Inglewood, it also has proved costly to the city’s taxpayers.

The state Fair Political Practices Commission fined the city $50,000 on Thursday, charging that the city violated state law by sending out mass mailings at public expense that featured photographs of elected city officials.

“The purpose of the law is to prevent the use of taxpayer money by public officials to promote themselves,” said Steven Russo, an attorney for the commission.

Inglewood officials signed a stipulated settlement acknowledging that they paid a firm $10,800 per month to produce a monthly magazine, Inglewood Today, to be sent to every household in the city to highlight local happenings and services.

The settlement says that 10 issues, ending in September 2003, “impermissibly” featured photos of elected officials, including Mayor Roosevelt Dorn and four council members.

Dorn did not return calls, but a representative said any violations were inadvertent.

“We believe they were proper,” Emmerline Foote, the interim city attorney, said of the magazines. “If there were mistakes made, they were innocently made. It wasn’t anybody’s intent to advance the political career of any individual.”

But Russo said the maximum penalty was warranted.

“It was an extremely serious violation,” he said.

*

Congresswoman to Play Key Role in Immigration Debate

With President Bush pushing a controversial guest worker program and some Republican members of Congress calling for a crackdown on illegal immigration, one Southern California lawmaker has positioned herself to play a key role in the upcoming debate.

Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Norwalk) has been elected chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, a position that will put her in the center of the debate over immigration reform.

She is unabashed in her opposition to many of her colleagues’ “reforms,” but said she is open to new ideas, including some from Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas).

“There are some issues that we might agree on to help homeland security, but let’s make sure we don’t have xenophobia and go after all of the illegal immigrants,” she said.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, a leading organization seeking to halt illegal immigration, sees Napolitano as one of its staunchest adversaries.

Napolitano has voted against all 11 bills that FAIR took a position on this year. “She has fought every effort to tighten controls,” said Dan Stein, the group’s president. “I’m looking forward to going toe to toe with her.”

*

Conference for 10,000 Women Leaves Men at a Disadvantage

There was justice last week, at least in Long Beach.

In a scenario familiar to any woman who has attended a large public event, the California Governor’s Conference on Women and Families featured too few bathrooms.

But in this case, it was the men who suffered.

Organizers for the conference of 10,000 women staged a coup and commandeered the men’s restrooms, leaving just a single bathroom in the bowels of the Long Beach Convention Center for the few men in attendance.

The conference featured the Minerva Awards, organized by First Lady Maria Shriver, recognizing accomplished California women.

The winners were Ana Deutsch, co-founder of the Los Angeles-based Program for Torture Victims; Lula Washington, founder and artistic director of Lula Washington Contemporary Dance based in South Los Angeles; Helene Brown, an advocate for cancer research and prevention; and Mimi Silbert, founder and president of the Delancy Street Foundation.

*

Points Taken

* Orange County Republicans are boasting of their achievement in delivering the largest margin of victory for President Bush of any county in the nation. The county gave the incumbent president a 222,593-vote edge. The next-Bushiest place was Tarrant County, Texas, where the margin was 142,176 votes.

* Assemblywoman Jenny Oropeza wasn’t able to attend last week’s swearing-in ceremony for legislators because she was at home in Long Beach recovering from surgery to remove a malignant tumor from her liver, said spokesman Ray Sotero. The Democrat, who won a third term in November, will undergo preventive chemotherapy for the next few months, but her doctor has told her to expect a full recovery. She hopes to be back in the Capitol next month.

* Senate President Pro Tem John Burton may have left his post last week, but he is keeping his hand in state government, as is his daughter. One of the last acts of the Burton-chaired Senate Rules Committee was to appoint Burton to the Senate Advisory Commission on Cost Control in State Government. The appointment includes no salary. In addition, Burton’s committee named his daughter, Kim Burton-Cruz, to a new Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, which Burton helped set up to analyze the use of the death penalty. The appointment includes compensation for travel expenses.

* The endorsements in the Los Angeles mayor’s race are rolling in. Councilwoman Jan Perry has become the eighth member of the City Council to back Mayor James K. Hahn for reelection, while Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich announced last week that he is endorsing City Councilman Bernard C. Parks for the job.

*

You Can Quote Me

“Maybe I won’t need this thing after all ... yeah!!!!”

Former Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, taking up a cordless microphone and making fun of his yell-heard-round-the-world. Dean was accepting the Byron Sher Award from the California League of Conservation Voters last Tuesday.

*

Contributors this week include Times staff writers Patt Morrison, Jean O. Pasco, Robert Salladay and Richard Simon.