BUENA PARK : $3 Parking Violation Fee Increase OKd

Citations for parking on the street during street-sweeping hours or for expired parking meters have been increased by $3.

The City Council this week approved increasing the fines to raise revenue to offset the cost to administer a program to hire an officer to hear disputes over parking citations and render decisions--instead of parking violators going to court.

Police Chief Richard M. Tefank said the state is requiring agencies issuing parking citations to have a program in place by January.

The council recently approved hiring a part-time traffic citation hearing administrator and a full-time police clerk to run the program.

But the cost to administer the program is about $39,000 and the state provided no funding, Tefank said.

Tefank said the projected revenue from the increases in municipal code parking citations will generate the $39,000. The figure is based on the issuance of about 13,000 parking citations.

“So the city does not become in debt to administer the program, we’re passing the cost on to the violator,” Tefank said.

Tefank said the program is planned to start Dec. 1.

The city could generate additional revenues by conducting the hearings for neighboring police departments that don’t want to administer their own programs, Tefank said.

“Every agency that issues parking citations has to have process,” he said. “Hopefully, we can contract the service.”