8 City Workers Found With Fake Parking Permits

How hard is it for city employees to get a parking permit for the garage under the downtown Civic Center?

So hard that most have to wait up to 20 years for enough seniority. So hard that a lively little black market in fake permits has sprung up.

Eight employees from the city’s Fire and Planning departments have been found with bogus permits, according to officials. Once the deception was discovered, their cars were towed away and their parking privileges revoked in perpetuity.

Security officials believe that the employees bought or accepted the bogus permits from someone who is manufacturing the fakes in City Hall. The Los Angeles Police Department has been asked to investigate the clandestine parking operation.

“We don’t know how big this ring is,” said Gonzelo Cureton, director of City Hall’s security division.

For many in City Hall, the scandal comes as no big surprise, considering how scarce parking spaces are in the Civic Center. Because the city has 4,500 spots, half as many as it has downtown employees, available spaces are doled out according to strict criteria.

The situation was made worse when the city eliminated about 400 spaces under City Hall to begin seismic repair work.

Elected officials, their staff and department heads are automatically allotted spaces, for which they must pay $27.50 per month. All other employees must compete for the remaining spots, with priority going to employees with the most seniority.

The bogus permits were discovered late last week by city parking attendants during a routine spot inspection of cars parked in City Hall’s underground lots. The fakes were colored photocopies of real permits that had been laminated to appear authentic.

Parking and security officials declined to release the names of the employees caught with the fake permits, pending further investigations. But sources said some of the employees admitted that they received and used the permits knowing they were bogus.

Paul Gillis, a battalion chief with the Fire Department, said he heard during a lunch conversation that fake permits were being circulated in City Hall. But he said he could not comment on the Fire Department employees who were caught with the permits, adding that the matter has been referred to the agency’s internal investigations unit.