HUNTINGTON BEACH : City Seeks to End Parking Meter Jam

Word has spread in recent months that the city’s reputedly foolproof parking meters can indeed be fooled, and they have been at an alarming rate, city officials say.

Recalcitrant motorists seeking to spare their change have discovered that they can fashion metal slugs out of a commonly found item--such as soda can tops--and substitute them for quarters to register time on mechanical parking meters.

“It’s been a horrendous problem,” said Ron Hagan, the city’s community services director. “We’re getting bucketfuls of pop tops.”

Not only has the petty theft cost the city $70,000 in lost revenue during the last six months, but city crews have not been able to keep pace with the soaring rate of jammed mechanical meters, Hagan said.

In an effort to tackle the problem, the City Council, at Hagan’s request, agreed to spend $8,520 to hire two part-time workers to repair jammed parking meters. The workers will also patrol for anyone substituting illegal objects for quarters.

Jamming a parking meter with a foreign object is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $500 or six months in jail.

Parking meters, which are concentrated in the downtown-beach area, provide a key source of income for the city, accounting for about $500,000 a year, Hagan said.

In the past, the city has managed to keep a step ahead of the various tricks played on meters.

During the 20 years the city’s current mechanical meters have been in place, motorists have ducked payments by substituting such items as penknives, slugs and arcade tokens for quarters. In earlier cases, either the meter company or the city tinkered with the mechanism and foiled users of the foreign objects.

But the city has not been able to solve the latest problem.

The meters initially accept the newly fashioned slugs, which are used to clock 15, 30 or 60 minutes, depending on the meter. But when the next patron arrives and attempts to deposit another quarter--or slug, for that matter--the meter jams and sprouts an “out of order” sign.

“It makes everybody mad, because we have an ordinance against parking in a space with a jammed meter, and we ticket people who park in jammed-meter areas,” Hagan said.

So, when an unsuspecting motorist attempts to use a meter that has been tampered with, he or she loses a quarter and has to move, Hagan said.

During a recent one-day survey, city workers found that 300 of the city’s 2,000 meters were jammed with foreign objects.

Hagan estimates that meters are being jammed at a rate of 90 a day. City crews can fix only 30 or 40 jammed meters daily, he said.

Hagan said he is studying alternatives to mechanical meters, such as ticket-dispensing machines. These machines are not easily corroded, are able to make change for users and are almost impossible to tamper with, he said.

Hagan said he expects to present his meter system recommendation to the City Council within three months.