Valley Office to Hear Parking Ticket Appeals

San Fernando Valley residents will soon be able to appeal parking tickets without having to drive downtown or to West Los Angeles, the City Council decided Tuesday.

The council voted to spend $191,000 this year to open a hearing office, most likely in Van Nuys, where motorists can appeal parking tickets to an administrative examiner.

The city currently conducts 24,000 hearings per year in offices in downtown and West L.A. A Valley office could open as soon as May, conducting about 4,000 of those hearings annually, city officials said.

Council members from Central and East Los Angeles were miffed by the proposal to open a Valley office, demanding that offices be opened in their districts as well.

“I keep asking, ‘When do we come up with a program to put these adjudication offices throughout the city?’ ” said Councilman Mike Hernandez, who represents parts of East L.A.

Other council members, citing a projected $250-million deficit next year, worried that the city may not be able to pay for continuing operation of the office.

The council, nonetheless, voted unanimously to support the proposal.

The $191,000 allocated for this fiscal year would pay to lease a building near the Van Nuys Civic Center as well as the salaries of an office manager, a receptionist and an administrative hearing officer.

The office was requested by Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents parts of the northwest Valley. “It’s important that we make a strong statement now that the Valley is important,” he told the council.

A city survey of motorists who appealed parking tickets in the West L.A. offices found that 20% of the people wanted a hearing office in the Valley. In fact, transportation officials said their most critical comments have come from Valley residents who complain about having to drive on the congested San Diego Freeway to appeal tickets in West Los Angeles.

Transportation officials also believe that many motorists do not exercise their right to appeal a parking ticket because of the inconvenience of traveling to downtown or West Los Angeles for such hearings.

The city issues about 370,000 parking tickets annually in the Valley.

Before 1993, traffic court judges in downtown, West Los Angeles and Van Nuys heard most parking ticket appeals. But a state law that was designed to relieve traffic courts from dealing with parking tickets turned that responsibility over to the cities that issue the tickets.

After the law changed, the city opened the two hearing offices in downtown Los Angeles and in West Los Angeles.