Thousands of Canceled Parking Tickets Indicate Clout Pays Off : Abused Policy Needs Tightening, Kolender Admits

If you are an influential businessman, a police officer, a TV news reporter, a friend or relative of a top police administrator or just have the right connections, chances are you don’t have to pay a parking ticket in San Diego.

Last year, San Diego police officials dismissed more than 15,000 parking citations worth about $250,000. A monthlong investigation by The Times revealed that the Police Department routinely violates its own policies by dismissing thousands of tickets for flimsy or fabricated excuses or none at all.

In many cases, the excuses would be unacceptable in Municipal Court, where motorists who lack connections must go to dispute parking citations.

Dozens of city employees and police officials had their parking citations dismissed by claiming they were “on official business” or “held over in an official meeting,” an excuse that could be used by nearly anyone who works and drives a vehicle in downtown San Diego. Other tickets were dismissed in the interest of “public relations.”

News executives at one television station, KGTV (Channel 10), are so cavalier about parking violations that they turn over every ticket incurred by their news crews to the Police Department with the expectation they will be dismissed. In most cases they are.

The Police Department has dismissed tickets for Police Chief Bill Kolender’s wife and son; Asst. Police Chief Bob Burgreen’s daughter and some of Kolender’s friends, among them KSDO radio sportscaster Ron Reina.

Presented with The Times’ findings Friday, Kolender conceded that the Police Department’s ticket dismissal procedures have been abused.

“We’re going to tighten up the policy,” Kolender said. “It will not be so easy to cancel a ticket in the future.”

Mayor Maureen O’Connor called for City Manager John Lockwood to conduct “a thorough investigation” of how the Police Department dismisses tickets.

“I pay my parking tickets,” O’Connor said. “I just assumed everybody paid their parking tickets.”

Like the mayor, most San Diegans pay their parking tickets. The city treasurer’s office collected $7.2 million on 378,359 citations in fiscal year 1985.

The Times reviewed more than 25,000 dismissed parking tickets dating back to January, 1985. Although the department only keeps parking records since then, police sources said abuses have been occurring for years.

The department dismisses so many tickets in part because it is a city policy to ticket all violators with the exception of marked police cars. In some cities marked government vehicles and media vehicles with special permits are not ticketed.

Many of the tickets were for expired vehicle registrations and were dismissed after the owners showed proof of current registration. In those cases and many others there was no indication that the car owners used friendships or connections to the Police Department to have their tickets overturned.

The investigation found that, since last year, about 400 parking tickets were dismissed for San Diego police officers, 265 for Mexican consulate officials, 194 for San Diego journalists, 166 for FBI agents, 100 for the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and nearly 100 for city employees.

The list of people who had their citations dismissed include Superior Court Judge James A. Malkus, former Tijuana Police Chief Gerardo Sosa Olachea, Chamber of Commerce Vice President Wally Schlotter and KFMB-TV (Channel 8) editorial director Carl Sisskind.

Other names that turned up through police dismissal records included San Diego developer Graham MacHutchin; Arthur Letter, an aide to Assemblyman Larry Stirling; attorney Patrick J. Thistle; Deputy Chief Norm Stamper; retired Deputy Chief William Gore, and Undersheriff Richard Sandberg.

According to department policy, any of 27 senior police officers is authorized to dismiss a ticket that is proven to have been issued in error. Burgreen said department policy requires that each canceled ticket be accompanied by a dismissal form explaining the circumstances surrounding the citation.

However, The Times uncovered thousands of canceled tickets in police records that failed to contain a dismissal form or an explanation. For example, FBI Special Agent George Hudnor signed his name on more than 100 tickets and wrote “FBI” on each of them. The citations, many of which were parking infractions on streets surrounding the FBI’s downtown office, appeared in police files without dismissal forms. Repeated phone calls to Hudnor last week went unreturned.

The citations dismissed by police range from meter violations at $14 apiece to parking in a handicapped zone, for which the fine is $54. Dozens of canceled tickets included fines for parking in red and handicapped zones, which in most cases should not be fixed, Burgreen said.

For those without connections inside the Police Department, getting a ticket dismissed is an ordeal that requires at least one appearance for arraignment in traffic court in Kearny Mesa.

On most days, 10 to 25 people with parking citations wait to enter a plea in a courtroom filled with other traffic violators. “It can take half a day,” said Susan Heath, chief deputy of the city attorney’s criminal division.

Those who want to fight their tickets will enter a not guilty plea and return another day for a trial. Before entering a plea, a parking offender can meet with a deputy city attorney in an attempt to get the ticket dropped. Heath said her office excuses some tickets outside traffic court for those able to prove they were victims of extenuating circumstances.

But some of the reasons that San Diego police officials routinely accept for dismissing parking tickets are either not valid or too vague, Heath said.

For example, police repeatedly canceled citations because a meter expired before a motorist could come back with change. In most cases, Heath said, she would reject such an excuse.

“We’d have a reasonable likelihood of convicting that person,” she said. “They admitted that they parked there with an expired meter.”

Other explanations accepted by police that probably would be insufficient in court include being held too long in a meeting or having to testify in court, Heath said.

Many influential San Diegans take their case to a friend in the Police Department when they want to get a parking ticket dismissed. Since last year, 78 people have gone directly to the chief’s office, The Times found. Kolender, Burgreen and former Deputy Chief Ken O’Brien approved the dismissal of most of these tickets.

Mexican dignitaries arranged to have 265 tickets voided by sending them to police Detectives George Navarro and Ron Collins, who serve as the department’s Mexican liaison officers. Many of the citations were issued to vehicles parked in the consulate space without consular permits; others involved violations spread all over town for failing to put money in meters and parking in loading zones.

Javier Escobar, Mexico’s consul general for San Diego, said the 26 consulate employees regard the dismissals as part of a “certain international courtesy extended to diplomats.” Escobar said such privileges are the norm as long as they are not abused. On at least two occasions, consul officials had tickets dismissed for parking in a red zone, a violation Escobar said he considers an abuse.

“They wear us out,” Burgreen said, adding that his office doesn’t screen any of the tickets turned in by the consulate. “We don’t want to be knocking on the door and say, ‘Were you driving this car or was it the secretary that you hired that’s a citizen driving that car?’ ”

For years, journalists have had tickets dismissed by turning them over to police spokesmen Bill Robinson and Rick Carlson, who oversee police-media relations. Since January, 1985, the worst offenders in the media have been Channel 10, with 64 tickets dismissed, and KFMB-TV (Channel 8), with 54.

“We are taking the media at their face value and we are not conducting in-depth investigations unless we have reason to believe (the policy) is being abused,” Burgreen said. “I haven’t personally had it brought to my attention that anyone is abusing it.”

But police sources told The Times that media requests have on occasion been rejected when reporters attempted to have police fix tickets they received for parking illegally outside a restaurant during lunch.

Many of the tickets are dismissed after violators go to friends in the Police Department. Among those cases:

- Earnest (Stan) Stanley, president of the Stanley Dodge dealership in National City, was cited in September, 1985, for parking in a handicapped zone at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium before traveling with the Chargers to a road game. Stanley said he felt that the ticket was a “little bit unfair” because he parked his car at night and did not see the handicapped sign.

Stanley, who provides the Chargers with new cars in exchange for free advertising at the stadium and in football programs, turned the citation over to a Charger official.

“I asked if it was possible, since . . . they were involved in police patrols and security and so forth, if maybe they could talk to someone and explain the circumstances so that I would not have to go to court,” Stanley said.

The Chargers turned to Officer Dick Lewis, who moonlights as a security guard for the football team during home and away games. Lewis dismissed the ticket.

Burgreen said he has been concerned for years about the professional relationship between Lewis and other officers who work in their spare time for the Chargers.

“I’ve told them I don’t want those guys on the team or the coaches or any of those people feeling like they can just do whatever they want,” Burgreen said.

Kolender said of Lewis fixing tickets for friends of the Chargers: “He will not be doing it anymore.”

- Richard Ewens, supervising peace officer for the San Diego Unified School District, asked Sgt. Ed Smith to dismiss a meter violation issued in April, 1985, to one of his officers.

Evans wrote: “The (citation) was issued to one of our officers who apparently failed to read the numerals in the meter. . . . Anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated. Thanx!!”

Ewens said his policy is to have parking citations “taken care of” if his officers are on official duty on school property and driving government vehicles. In this case, the officer drove a BMW and did not park near school property, according to information on the ticket.

“If it was some guy’s personal car and I wrote the letter, then I’m wrong,” Ewens said.

- Lou Ann Holmes, an aide to Councilwoman Judy McCarty, received a parking ticket on E Street in front of the main library in March, 1985. Holmes said she was tied up in a meeting inside the library while her parking meter expired.

Instead of paying the ticket, Holmes called Lt. Ronald Seden, an officer she had dealt with because of council business.

“I called him for advice,” Holmes said.

Holmes said Seden suggested that she send the ticket to him with an explanation. Seden dismissed the citation.

“It wasn’t a special favor,” Holmes said. “I was representing the City of San Diego at a meeting at a public library. I wouldn’t have gotten that ticket if I wasn’t representing the city. I wouldn’t have been down there, period.”

Police officials confirmed that city employees are not exempt from parking tickets while at city meetings.

- Superior Court Judge James A. Malkus parked in a metered space outside the Police Officers Assn. headquarters on Kettner Boulevard in February to attend a seminar on law and justice for Lead of San Diego Inc. Kolender is president of the organization, which is designed to groom future city leaders.

After the meeting, when Malkus discovered the ticket, one of the police officers attending the seminar suggested that “something could be done with it,” he said.

“I’m there as part of my civic duty,” said Malkus, who emphasized that he has paid other parking tickets. “I’m delivering a lecture and operating with a civic operation. . . . Under these circumstances, I found that it was appropriate when I had the opportunity to have the matter taken care of.”

But Malkus said that, if he had to do it over again, he would have paid the $17 fine.

- As vice president for the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce motion picture bureau, Wally Schlotter works closely with Officer Alan Clark on closing city streets for film production crews. Schlotter had Clark fix three tickets for meter violations, two of which he received during filming of the movie “Top Gun.”

“I just don’t go to a location and say they will fix my ticket so I will park here,” said Schlotter, who added that he has paid numerous parking citations. “It would have to be something where I put money in the meter and we stayed longer.”

Schlotter said that, when he is on location negotiating a film such as “Top Gun,” which brought more than $2 million in revenue to San Diego, he can’t worry about “ruining a deal” to put a quarter in a parking meter.

“We’re trying to do a job to bring an economic impact to the city which employs hundreds of people and leaves millions of dollars. . . . That is something that whoever makes the decisions (to dismiss) parking tickets must be considering,” Schlotter said.

The Police Department often bends the rules when it comes to dismissing citations for members of the law enforcement fraternity, The Times found.

A secretary in the Sheriff’s Department routinely stamps parking citations with Undersheriff Richard Sandberg’s name and sends them to the Police Department, where they are dismissed without any explanation.

Lt. John Tenwolde, head of the Sheriff’s Department’s public affairs division, received 11 tickets for parking his county vehicle in red and commercial loading zones outside his downtown office on Union Street. Three of the tickets were for parking near a fire hydrant, a violation which police officials say is inexcusable unless it took place during an emergency.

“In terms of parking in front of a fireplug, I should not have signed it and asked the city to set it aside,” Sandberg said. “ . . . I don’t like that at all. It’s simply uncalled for.”

In another case, Sgt. Art Turman persuaded fellow Sgt. James Dent to dismiss a parking ticket even though he admitted he was wrong.

Turman wrote: “Is there any possibility you could assist me with this. . . . I couldn’t have missed the controller by 2-3 minutes and was unable to get there sooner. Almost as if she was ‘snarking’ the meter. If they are unable to void this thing, I’ll understand and pay it as I’m ‘technically’ guilty.”

Burgreen said: “We don’t want to be fixing tickets for cops unless they are in a police vehicle and on police business and had no alternatives.”

When it serves its purpose, the Police Department takes parking violations seriously. Police officials are seeking to fire Officer J.W. Farrar for violating numerous department policies, including parking his police car in a red zone while cashing a personal check.

“When it was charged, I laughed out loud,” said Farrar, whose case is pending before the Civil Service Commission. “In my 15 years as a police officer, (parking in a red zone) is as common a practice as driving down the street. Even though we all know in our heart it is illegal and unfair to the public, it is something everyone has done.”

Burgreen said: “Unless you are truly on an emergency, a red zone is not a good place to park. It’s red because generally it means there is a fire hydrant there or there is some kind of hazard to parking there.”

Capt. Tom Hall, who is handling Farrar’s case, has had five parking citations dismissed since last year. At least one of the infractions was for parking in a red zone while Hall testified at a Civil Service hearing.

Monday: A look at why some media personnel routinely seek to have tickets dismissed.

Times staff writers Ralph Frammolino and Kathie Bozanich contributed to this report.