Parking Tickets--Widespread Fixing in San Diego Cited

If you are an influential businessman, a police officer, a TV news reporter, a friend or relative of a top police administrator, 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 excuses or none at all.

In many cases, the excuses would be unacceptable in Municipal Court, where motorists who lack connections must go to fight 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 drives 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, Assistant Police Chief Bob Burgreen’s daughter, and some of Kolender’s friends.

Presented with The Times’ findings on 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. Many of the tickets were for expired vehicle registrations and were dismissed after the owners showed proof of current registration. In those and many other cases there was no indication that the car owners used connections 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.

List of Privileged

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.

Kolender admitted that he had improperly “taken care of” tickets for his wife and himself, and said the practice would stop immediately. “I should not have done it,” the police chief said. “I did it.”

Kolender and Burgreen said they typically would dismiss a ticket by giving it to Lt. Charles Ellison without an explanation. Kolender confirmed that Ellison, who is assigned to the chief’s office, would then fill out a dismissal form and make up an excuse such as “driver gone for change” or “vehicle inoperative.”

Any one 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.

Often No Explanation

However, The Times uncovered thousands of dismissals 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. 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.

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. “It can take half a day,” said Susan Heath, chief deputy of the city attorney’s criminal division.

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.

Office of the Chief

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.

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. Javier Escobar, Mexico’s consul general for San Diego, said the 26 Consulate employees accept the dismissals as part of a “certain international courtesy extended to diplomats.”

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.

Among the cases of ticket dismissals found by The Times:

- Earnest (Stan) Stanley, president of the Stanley Dodge dealership in National City, was cited for parking in a handicapped zone at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. 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 Chargers 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 games. Lewis dismissed the ticket.

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

- Superior Court Judge James A. Malkus parked in a metered space outside the Police Officers Assn. headquarters in February to attend a seminar on law and justice. 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.

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

Routine Stamping

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. 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 (Tenwolde) 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.”

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.” 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.