Smog Check Effort Raises Fines, Tempers
A statewide crackdown on faulty smog check stations has produced hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and raised tensions between some smog check operators and the state Bureau of Automotive Repair.
Bureau officials allege that some of their employees in Sacramento have been followed or watched by people in cars with CB radios, who apparently hoped to foil undercover inspections aimed at faulty operators.
In Los Angeles County, a bureau worker said in an interview that he recently asked for a job transfer after a confrontation with a smog shop operator.
In West Sacramento two weeks ago, an irate garage owner, who recognized a Corvette awaiting a smog test as a state undercover vehicle, refused to release it for at least 1 1/2 hours.
Lobbyist Retained
Complaining of a “bounty hunting” mentality among state “smog spies,” about 20 smog check operators have retained a lobbyist and public relations consultant and are hoping to bring pressure on the bureau.
“This is entrapment,” complained Jerry Martinez, owner of a Sacramento repair shop and president of the newly formed California Smog Inspectors Assn., which will hold its organizational meeting Monday in Sacramento. Martinez acknowledged that he has been fined more than once.
Leo McElroy, a public relations consultant retained by the new group, accused the state of “fighting the smog fighters instead of fighting the smog. . . .”
But Richard Mundy, district manager for the Bureau of Automotive Repair in Sacramento, said it appears some shops “are spending more time trying to keep from getting caught than actually just trying to do the inspection properly.”
The conflict stems from an aggressive enforcement campaign to upgrade the smog check program, widely seen as the centerpiece of California’s smog-fighting efforts.
In recent months, hundreds of the state’s 8,300 smog check stations have been hit with citations and fines for issuing smog certificates for state undercover cars that obviously lacked basic pieces of emission-control equipment.
In July, for example, the first full month of enhanced undercover work, 63% of the visibly defective state cars were issued smog certificates, according to Martin B. Dyer, chief of the bureau, which administers the smog check program.
With 600 to 700 undercover visits made in each of the ensuing months, the rate of improperly issued certificates has declined. Yet in November, 216 stations--or 32% of those visited--issued certificates for defective cars.
From July through November, 1,439 citations were given to smog check shops and 1,344 went to owners or managers who improperly signed the smog certificates, according to bureau figures.
First Citation
A station’s first citation means a $250 fine, a second citation costs $750 and a third brings a penalty of $1,500. Four citations and the shop is out of the program, which Dyer said has occurred in 67 cases.
Improperly signing the certificate means a $150 fine for the inspector on the first offense, $400 the second time and $650 the third.
At the current rate, Dyer said, the undercover inspections will bring in $1 million to $2 million in fines a year.
Dyer said the bureau has been overt, rather than sly, about the condition of the cars.
The smog test, required every two years, involves a measurement of emissions when a car is running in idle and a visual check to see that seven key components--including the catalytic converter and air injection pump--are present and properly hooked up.
According to Dyer, one or more of these parts is deliberately removed from each state car brought in for inspection.
Smog checks, started in 1984, are estimated to have cut vehicle emissions between 11% and 17%, according to state officials. With improvements, they say the program could achieve a 25% reduction.
Missing Equipment
Random roadside surveys have shown that 25% of California vehicles have missing or disconnected emissions-control equipment. Yet only 4% to 5% of the cars fail their biennial smog tests, bureau officials said.
They acknowledged that part of the difference may result from mechanics rejecting cars that are missing pollution controls before the actual test is run. Still, they said, any station that does not flunk 10% of all cars arouses suspicions and makes the list of shops to be visited by undercover cars.
“All we want to do is get them to look at every car as though it’s one of ours,” Dyer said.
He said the improved results since July show that “the bulk of the mechanics are beginning to do an outstanding job.”
But some of garage owners are not pleased with the trend.
“We accept that it’s necessary to have some enforcement,” McElroy said, but the purpose should be “to make the laws more effective,” not to “maximize the number of fines collected.”
New Organization
Officials of the new organization conceded that their chances of influencing the inspection program hinges on how many operators are willing to join.
Many in the auto repair industry take a dim view of the protest effort. Jim Campbell, executive director of the 2,700-member California Service Station and Automotive Repair Assn., said his group has no “sympathy for those that don’t do it by the numbers. . . .”
“When the public pays 20 bucks to get their car inspected, they’re entitled to get their car inspected properly,” he said.
George Perry, a Vallejo service station owner and member of the association’s board, said he does 300 to 500 smog tests a month and has not been cited yet.
“These guys that are crying have been nailed by the state. . . . Is it right for them to do an inspection that is not valid?” Perry said.
With 8,300 operators, it is not surprising that a few react with fury to the decoy operation, bureau officials said. Mundy said the level of hostility is manageable so far, “as long as it doesn’t escalate.”
Undercover Check
In one episode Dec. 22, police were summoned to West Sacramento Auto Repair when owner Duke Walden refused to release a state-owned Corvette that had been brought to the shop for an undercover check.
Walden acknowledged using abusive language with the driver and seizing the car--saying he did it to make a point.
“I’m just not going to be harassed . . . or intimidated,” Walden said in a telephone interview.
Asked how he knew it was an undercover car, Walden said: “I don’t particularly like to tell all my secrets. . . . I have different ways of finding out.”
Dyer said faulty operators are responding, in part, to the wishes of many motorists to get smog certificates regardless of the condition of their vehicles.
“It’s good business to give the customer what he wants,” Dyer said. “We’ve got to change what it is that makes that customer happy.”
He said the smog check program will not achieve its full potential “until a motorist, when he goes in for a smog check, wants a clean car,” rather than “a piece of paper.”
