The Meter Is Ticking : Parking: Laguna officers zap violators with citations as drivers vie for limited space. Fines have become important source of income for cities.

A few minutes back from her break and Laguna Beach parking officer Marianne Weber was on a roll.

A rental car’s time on a parking meter had expired.

Ticketed!

An off-white Volkswagen bug was overtime at its meter and suffered the same costly fate.

Ditto the metallic gray Subaru whose registration is out of date.

All this in just five minutes on a slow day.

Now that summertime is around the corner, Weber’s workday will be busier than ever in this artsy beach city where parking is forever limited yet visitors still flock in droves to bask in the community’s sunshine trendiness.

“It’s nothing new to anyone that we don’t have enough parking to accommodate everyone who comes to our city,” Weber said as she deftly punched a few buttons on her hand-held computer. Within seconds and a few fly-like buzzes, the computer produced a ticket for some unlucky car owner whose meter had raised the dreaded red flag.

“But our job is to ensure that people follow parking rules. We’re not called meter maids for nothing.”

Actually, Weber’s official title is parking control officer (“But no one calls us that but our supervisors”), one of dozens of non-sworn parking officers in the county whose productivity has become more crucial than ever to the city that employs them.

During these times of budget woes and program cutbacks, the men and women who vigilantly patrol parking are more than meter-watchers; they are moneymakers. A large chunk of the revenue they bring in goes to the upkeep and repair of public facilities.

Officials of Laguna Beach and Newport Beach, arguably the two most popular seaside communities in the county, predict that they will collect about $800,000 and $2 million, respectively, this year from parking citations.

“The parking money makes up a very small part of our total ($30-million) budget,” Laguna Beach City Manager Kenneth C. Frank said. “But it goes to such necessary services as the cleaning and repairing of our sidewalks and beach stairways and the improvement and maintenance of other city projects.”

While the revenue they generate is important to their municipalities--the $2 million is 2.2% of Newport Beach’s $90-million budget--most of these parking officers say their most important role is keeping law and order in the parking zones.

“The money is a side issue,” said Laguna Beach Traffic Supervisor Sgt. Gregory Bartz. “The biggest thing is that they keep people from abusing the parking laws. The city has squeezed out every available parking, so what our parking control officers must do is make sure most people get a chance to park in our beach.”

That beach communities have parking problems is nothing new. But the situation is especially acute in the Laguna Beach business district between Broadway and Forest Avenue just inland of the Main Beach. Beach-goers and business patrons compete for available parking.

To ensure that parking is even semi-possible--and that the city receives the maximum economic benefit--meter parking around this area is limited to two hours per car at $1 an hour. (Newport Beach is scheduled to raise its meter fee to $1 per hour this summer, too.)

Most violators will get no break from Laguna Beach’s meter parking team, notorious for its efficiency in punching out those tickets which, depending on the violations, start at $20.

“The way I see it, the city hired me to do a job,” said Parking Officer Marlene Mackler, who also thinks of herself as a “meter maid.”

“Even though I know what it feels like to get a ticket, I just look at ticketing people as, ‘They took a chance, so they have to pay for it.’ ”

This said as she ticketed a white Volvo that was parked illegally, trunk first into a space. “While I’m compassionate,” Mackler said, tucking the ticket behind the windshield wiper, “not too many excuses or sob stories get by me. I get paid to do a job, not to listen to sad excuses.”

The often-time indignant and sometimes teary-eyed excuses are many. “The most common ones I hear everyday are, ‘I was just getting change,’ or ‘But I was only a few minutes late!’ ” Weber said.

Everyone once in a while--but don’t count on it--a parking violator gets lucky or earns some sympathy.

On this afternoon, as Weber was walking down a parking lot methodically eyeing meters, a British tourist stopped to ask her where the change machine was. Minutes later, as she was about to ticket a blue convertible that parked on the wrong side of the street, Weber remembered that “the English drive on the opposite side of the road.”

She hunted the young man down and told him to move his car.

“Everyone needs a break every once in a while, I guess,” said the lucky parker, Warren Barton. “I’ll say these officers are fast. I just pulled in minutes ago.”

Their no-nonsense reputation certainly precedes them.

In a trendy boutique on Forest Avenue last week, as a young girl waited in line to purchase a silk blouse, her friend, Carla Bryan, was impatiently and nervously peering out the door. “I’ve been ticketed right here, on this very street twice,” Bryan said. “They’re really quick around here.”

She breathed a sigh of relief when her friend headed for the door with her purchase. The pair quickly walked toward Bryan’s car; there was a minute to spare on the meter. “The last time I was here and got a ticket, I was only a couple of minutes late,” Bryan said ruefully. “Can you believe that? A couple of minutes late, and somehow the meter maid was able to catch it.”

Pricey Parking Parking violation fines add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, especially in coastal cities where choice parking is at a premium. Revenue for fiscal year 1991-92: Newport Beach: $1,845,498 Laguna Beach: $742,283 Huntington Beach: $496,868 San Clemente: $318,161 Seal Beach: $245,000 Source: Individual cities