BURBANK/GLENDALE : City May Process Other Areas’ Tickets

Parking citations slipped under windshield wipers in Burbank, La Canada Flintridge and other cities may soon be paid in Glendale under a proposal approved this week by the Glendale City Council.

The two cities have asked Glendale, which has its own parking citation processing program, to consider handling their tickets as well. Glendale officials said the city of San Fernando also has made preliminary inquiries.

The cities are looking for a new place to process their tickets because as of Jan. 1, a new state law prohibits them from using the court system to collect and record fines.

Glendale for years has processed its own parking citations. The city earlier this year installed and began using an $80,000 computerized system to collect about $2 million a year in fines from an average 120,000 citations issued annually, said traffic Lt. Ray Edey.

The same system could be used to process an estimated 65,000 parking citations issued yearly in Burbank and about 4,000 tickets in La Canada Flintridge, Edey said. Burbank is expected next week to consider a proposed three-year agreement by Glendale to process all of Burbank’s tickets for less than $79,000 per year.

Other cities participating would have to use the same hand-held, computerized ticketing device utilized by Glendale officers. Called AutoCITE, the battery-operated units have a memory chip capable of storing information on 1,000 citations.

Edey said the device is particularly useful in quickly identifying violators who have accumulated five or more unpaid parking tickets and whose vehicles can be seized.

The device also can be used to “mark” the license number of a car parked in a time-limit zone, which is quicker and more efficient than chalk marks on tires, officials said.