O.C. Officials Urged to Overhaul Traffic Schools

If you get a ticket and have to go to traffic school in Southern California, most counties allow you to take Internet courses, rent videos from Blockbuster or take classes, including some taught by “Improv” comedians.

Not in Orange County.

There, county officials have granted exclusive control of its traffic school services to one company, the only jurisdiction in Southern California to do so. Residents have one choice: A basic class held Thursdays and Saturdays at their local courthouse. But that could change.

The contract with the National Traffic Safety Institute expires this fall, and some critics are urging the courts to open the process to multiple schools as other counties do.

Court officials, however, said they are likely to maintain a single exclusive contract, arguing that it’s much simpler to monitor the work of one firm than numerous ones.

Officials said they also are wary of allowing Internet and at-home classes, because offenders might allow a friend or relative to do their work.

“I don’t think the technology is there currently that we can verify the people logging on are the people who signed up for traffic school,” said Orange County Judge Glenn A. Mahler, who sat on a committee that set the county’s traffic school standards.

The court system’s stance didn’t sit well with some accused violators waiting in line this week at the Santa Ana courthouse to get a traffic school reservation.

“I don’t like it. I wish I had that many choices,” said Alex Farias of Santa Ana. “You could breeze through it at home instead of wasting a Saturday. I would do it online or videotape. I don’t think it would be any different.”

Tustin resident Pauldarian Burns agreed: “I don’t get a lot out of having to be in class and be inconvenienced when I could be at work doing something productive.”

More than 400 independent traffic schools are approved by the Department of Motor Vehicles.

“With these options available in Los Angeles and San Diego, you have an island where if someone gets a ticket across the street they’re given more options,” said Gary Alexander, president of the Improv Traffic Schools.

The traffic school market is highly competitive, with scores of operators courting the hundreds of thousands of traffic violators who attend school to expunge tickets from their driving records.

In Orange County, about 100,000 motorists sign up for traffic school each year, said Carole Levitzky, spokeswoman for the Orange County Superior Court. At $13 per student, National’s cut is about $1.3 million per year.

The county has set an Aug. 7 deadline for schools to submit bids to become the county’s exclusive provider of traffic school services. Shirley Grindle, an outspoken critic of the Orange County government, questioned Wednesday why the county doesn’t allow competing schools to provide traffic classes.

“Why do we have a contract? Why not just let the citizens pick from a list of DMV-licensed traffic schools?” Grindle said. “This looks like favoritism to give one company a monopoly. I wouldn’t consider this something the residents would support.”

Only motorists who live outside the county are allowed to attend private traffic schools like Improv. Several private traffic schools operate in Orange County, but they only serve Orange County residents ticketed in other counties.