City Is Hoping to Apply the Denver Boot to Parking Ticket Scofflaws

A Los Angeles City Council committee on Tuesday approved the purchase of 200 bright orange “Denver boots” for use in a new program to clamp down on parking scofflaws.

The boot, first used in the Colorado city it is named for, is a large metal clamp that is attached and locked to a vehicle’s wheel to immobilize it. By unanimous vote, the Finance and Revenue Committee also directed that an ordinance be drafted to authorize the city Department of Transportation to collect a $35 fee from owners of vehicles to which the boot is attached. The owner would also have to settle up on past parking tickets to get the boot removed.

“This will let the public know that we are serious about cracking down on people who do not pay their parking tags,” Jim Bisetti, an analyst for the chief administrative office, told the committee.

In addition to the purchase of 200 boots at $350 each, the committee agreed to spend $68,000 for a citywide advertising campaign to inform the public of the program before next April, when it would take effect.

Those people with a number of outstanding tickets would also be notified by mail. “We want to give people ample opportunity to pay up,” Bisetti said.

If the measure is approved by the City Council and Mayor Tom Bradley, officials estimate that the city would increase its parking-ticket revenue by $1.75 million a year.

Under the $700,000-a-year program, five two-man teams of traffic officers would patrol the city’s streets, particularly in congested areas. They would be authorized to attach the boot to any vehicle they encounter with five or more outstanding traffic violations--even if the vehicle happened to be legally parked at the time.

In addition to helping the city collect outstanding fines from those whose vehicles have boots attached, city officials hope that the conspicuous, bright orange boot would serve as a reminder to others to settle up their old parking tickets.

Although similar Denver boot programs have drawn widespread criticism from motorists in other cities, the action by the committee, chaired by Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, sailed through with only light-hearted discussion.

In an unrelated action earlier in the day, Yaroslavsky held a press conference to call for an investigation of the city’s street-sweeping program, which he said is “at a virtual standstill” due to mechanical problems with 25 sweepers the city bought last year for $1.6 million.

Yaroslavsky asked that the chief administrative officer be directed to report to the council on the problem.

Meanwhile, the Illinois-based company that manufactured the 25 machines, Elgin Sweeper Co., has agreed to correct the problem, a malfunction in the heating system that causes the sweepers to overheat, a distributor for the company said.

Dave Reed, acting director of the city’s Street Maintenance Bureau, acknowledged that the city is only sweeping about 80% of the routes it is supposed to on a weekly basis and about 70% of those areas where street cleaning is done once a month. Reed said the company has agreed to spend $14,000 to overhaul each of the 25 defective machines, starting in February.