Car Dealership Cleared After Review of Tickets

The San Fernando Valley car dealership owned by Los Angeles police commissioner Bert Boeckmann has been cleared of responsibility for thousands of dollars in overdue parking tickets issued to vehicles registered to the firm, city officials said.

A city review of 249 tickets totaling $11,041 concluded that most are owed by car owners who received citations after they bought their vehicles from Boeckmann’s Galpin Motors but before they registered the purchase with the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

The city is still reviewing 72 parking citations totaling $3,206 to see if the North Hills dealership owes the money, said Alice Lepis, the city’s principal transportation engineer.

“How many of these [72] tickets are truly the liability of Galpin Ford is not certain at this time,” according to the two-page report compiled by the transportation department.

Lepis acknowledged that the review has dramatically reduced the amount of delinquent fines originally attributed to the dealership last month.

Boeckmann, who owns one of the nation’s leading Ford dealers, said he was not surprised by the results of the city’s review and that he believes he won’t owe the additional amount either.

“I never thought I owed anything,” Boeckmann said. Boeckmann said last month that his dealership routinely provides the city information on drivers who lease or rent vehicles, and that city officials should have checked that information before accusing his firm.

The transportation department is investigating the city official who sent Boeckmann a letter last month demanding payment of the fines. The official, Jay S. Carsman, said at the time he had a dispute with Boeckmann and his dealership over the terms of a lease arrangement made with Carsman’s son.

Carsman denied, however, that he was singling out Boeckmann.