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Friends with the Mayor? The "Gold Card Desk" will help you get out of traffic tickets
'Gold Card Desk' dismissed some L.A. parking tickets without justification, audit finds By Ari Bloomekatz, Los Angeles Times May 20, 2011 Approximately 1,000 Los Angeles city parking citations over a two-year period were dismissed — some without justification — through an obscure service known as the "Gold Card Desk" that allows the mayor and other elected officials to fast-track citation reviews, a new audit has found. The service, which few outside of city government appear to know about, partly involves a plastic parking bureau "Gold Card" that is distributed to city offices. It includes a special phone number to call and on the back side notes that the holder may have an "urgent need to resolve any parking citation matter which requires special attention." It promises "you will be immediately connected to our Gold Card Specialist." The program was started about 20 years ago to permit officials and their staff to expedite constituent appeals of parking tickets and possibly have fines reduced or eliminated. But auditors took issue with the service during a review of the city Department of Transportation. City Controller Wendy Greuel, who released the report Thursday, raised the specter that some people may have received special treatment in the handling of contested tickets. "You should not need political pull to expedite the investigation of a ticket," said Greuel, a possible candidate for mayor. "There were no specific policies to guide the review of these citations … we believe causing a rift for inappropriate cancellations." Greuel's audit said the Gold Card referral service is provided exclusively to the mayor's office and council district offices. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office challenged that Thursday afternoon, providing figures it had received indicating that about 90% of some 5,600 requests for Gold Card reviews came from within the transportation department and other sources in recent years, though it did include hundreds of requests from the mayor and City Council offices. The L.A. mayor's office also released information showing Greuel voted to approve a contract that included the Gold Card program, that she had been briefed on the program and that staff members in her office used the service while she was on the council. Greuel said she did not know about the service until recently and that the audit's findings — and her recommendation that the Gold Card Desk be eliminated — stood independently of any past actions. Auditors sampled 40 dismissals involving the Gold Card Desk. Greuel said that in "90% of those cases there was not a paper trail [showing] where those original requests came from or justification for that dismissal." All that was found in those cases were directives from transportation department managers to reduce fines or dismiss tickets, Greuel said. Overall, Greuel said it was unclear what percentage of the dismissals were done for justifiable reasons. Her office said the investigation could not pinpoint the source of all the referrals. Officials with the Department of Transportation defended the program's integrity. They said the desk was created in response to elected officials' requests to have a central point to send complaints about citations. "It's not intended to have any special consideration or dismissal, but rather an opportunity for an individual to be heard," said Robert Andalon, a senior transportation department official. He said there are two employees in charge of the Gold Card Desk, and that they act as ombudsmen. They were hired by the department's ticket-processing contractor, Affiliated Computer Services, he said. The transportation department's interim general manager, Amir Sedadi, said the department plans to discontinue the program in its upcoming contract. At a news conference Thursday, transportation department officials handed out fact sheets that included a description of the Gold Card Desk. It said "all contested citations, including those referred through the [Gold Card Desk] are reviewed using the exact same procedures." But, according to the audit, some of the tickets receiving expedited reviews were tossed out solely based on the violator's self-proclaimed inability to pay — a complaint Greuel's investigation portrayed as a dubious reason for dismissal. Some tickets were eliminated without the required paperwork. Other requests for dismissal did not include any reason at all. The program appears virtually unknown to most ticket recipients. Dozens of those who showed up Thursday to pay citations at an enforcement office downtown said they had never heard of the service. "I wish they did let us know about it," said 55-year-old Donny Legans, who arrived to pay an $88 ticket. Legans then asked officials inside about the program but was told it did not exist. "They said there is no such thing. You can't appeal," said Legans, who works in the air-conditioning business. "They told me: You have 30 days to pay this ticket or it will be doubled." Sarah Hamilton, a spokeswoman for Villaraigosa, said the mayor's office had periodically used the program as one of many ways to help constituents. Callers who thought they didn't deserve certain citations are referred to the Gold Card Desk, she said, adding that the program is open to anyone, not just VIPs or insiders. "Any resident of the city who feels they received a citation in error, or who needs a sidewalk repaired or graffiti removed can call the mayor's office for assistance," Hamilton said. The Gold Card Desk is a comparable "resource for constituents." Who else used the service remains a puzzle, even to auditors. Several council members said they had not heard of or used the program. Councilwoman Jan Perry said that several years ago her staff was briefed about the program, but that she believed neither she nor her staff had ever used it. Councilman Dennis Zine said he also had heard of the service but never used it and said that "if we can establish or reduce fines, that's news to me." Another council member, Richard Alarcon, said someone came to his office several years ago to train his staff on the Gold Card program. He provided a memo from the city's ticket contractor explaining that the service is only to help constituents. "These services are only available for those who have taken their concerns regarding parking citations to the Parking Violations Bureau, but have been unable to come to a resolution based on extenuating circumstances," the memo states. The audit released Thursday is the second in a series of three focusing on the city transportation department. The first audit, released in April, found that the department had missed out on up to $15 million in revenues because it had gone easy on chronic scofflaws who rack up multiple unpaid parking tickets. The new audit also found the department pays the ticket-handling contractor to process citations even when they have been voided by a traffic officer because of mistake or error. The city paid more than $440,000 in fees related to those type of voided citations during the audit period from July 2008 to June 2010. Another finding was that the department missed out on revenue for many years because it failed to aggressively pursue collections from "protective plate holders" such as police officers, firefighters and social workers, among others. The audit found that 30% of citations issued to protective plate holders from 2005 to 2010 had not been paid. "Protective plates should not be used as a get-out-of-jail-free card," Greuel said. Sedadi said he was reviewing the audit's findings and that the department had "already implemented many of the controller's recommendations and have taken management actions to address some of the findings." ari.bloomekatz@latimes.com
‘Tarjeta Dorada’ para no pagar multas de tránsito Por Francisco Castro en Los Angeles 6:27 PM, 19 may 2011 El alcalde, concejales y otras autoridades municipales utilizan una “tarjeta dorada” para apelar multas de tránsito de los residentes de su distrito, reveló una auditoria del Departamento de Transporte dada a conocer hoy. Según la contralora municipal Wendy Greuel, esta tarjeta ha sido responsable de la eliminación de unas 1,000 multas en un periódo de dos años. La auditoria reveló que muchas de estas infracciones fueron reducidas o eliminadas sin justificación alguna o sin el papeleo correspondiente. El Departamento de Transporte dijo que esta tarjeta ha existido por unos 20 años y es una manera en que los concejales pueden lidiar con quejas que residentes de sus distritos presentan en sus oficinas.
List of Los Angeles parking ticket dismissals growing By Ricardo Lopez and Ari Bloomekatz, Los Angeles Times July 1, 2011 Despite claims by many top Los Angeles officials that they had never heard of a special service to review parking citations, newly released documents show several City Council offices benefited from the so-called Gold Card Desk by securing dozens of ticket dismissals. Some of the dismissals involved relatives of local officials or helped council offices quash political fires among irate constituents, the records show. Officials disbanded the Gold Card Desk in May amid public outrage that the city had a special unit that took care of parking citations. The Times this week reviewed about 4,800 pages of parking ticket records covering a two-year period to determine whose tickets were handled by the desk. The review showed a number of community groups, businesses and city agencies received reviews and dismissals. Among those whose complaints were funneled through the Gold Card Desk, known to few outside of City Hall, was a former top aide to City Controller Wendy Greuel, who succeeded in getting his mother's citation dropped. It was Greuel who cast a harsh public spotlight on the ticket review operation in a May audit, saying she had never heard of the service or used it. However, records and interviews show that the Gold Card Desk handled a complaint by Greuel's former press deputy Ben Golombek. He had argued to transportation officials that his mother was unfairly ticketed by an overly aggressive parking enforcement officer. The citation was quickly ordered to be dropped by the head of the city's parking enforcement division. Golombek, who now works for a state lawmaker, declined to comment. Greuel, who is a possible candidate for mayor, said she was "disappointed" to learn that Golombek had benefited from the service. "No one should go around the normal process," she said. The complaints of another Los Angeles official, former Department of Building and Safety head Andrew Adelman, who challenged at least four of his own tickets within the two-year period, also were sent to the special desk. Among the reasons Adelman—who later left office in 2009 as police were investigating a rape allegation—requested dismissals was because, he said, he had a valid vehicle registration but his license tags had been stolen. The dismissal requests were all granted. Adelman denied the rape allegations and was never charged. In December 2009, City of Commerce Councilman Robert C. Fierro contacted Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office — who referred the matter to the transportation department, which referred it to the Gold Card Desk — to seek dismissal of a ticket for his wife, the records show. "She was upset over the way she was treated," Fierro said, adding that he had never heard of the Gold Card Desk until recent news reports. "She was able to fight the ticket. She had witnesses, it was just a matter of going through the things.… We contacted the mayor's office to file a complaint." A complete picture of the individuals and cases that were funneled through the Gold Card service in recent years was not possible to reconstruct. The city's transportation department redacted names and other information from a large share of the documents requested by The Times. Officials said the action was necessary to protect the privacy of the average citizens who received special reviews after complaining to the agency. City officials said their referrals were appropriate and were simply efforts to help constituents. Though some of the dismissals appeared to be routine and justified, many had little information on why the citations were canceled. Auditors in Greuel's office recently completed their own analysis of the dismissed citations and found "no comprehensive policies or procedures in place to substantiate the dismissal of 43% of the 1,026 dismissed tickets." Their analysis also found that 777 of the tickets were dismissed through the Gold Card Desk at the direction of officials within the transportation department. Auditors concluded that 43% of those referrals were internally generated within the transportation department. But they could not determine the origin of the remaining 57% of Gold Card Desk ticket referrals because of insufficient documentation. Among the tickets dismissed were dozens issued to vehicles belonging to a private firm that launched a city-approved car-sharing program near UCLA. The firm complained it was improperly ticketed when the cars were parked in spaces that should have been exempt from enforcement. Other dismissals involved undercover investigators who received tickets while on the job. Terri McKinnon, an assistant to Councilwoman Janice Hahn, contacted the transportation department in August 2008 to have about 150 citations dismissed because of problems with new machines installed at a parking lot in her district, the records show. A Hahn spokesman said the citations were properly dismissed. Expedited reviews were also sometimes tied to special events or religious holidays when repeated problems arose after traffic officers issued tickets in areas where relaxed parking enforcement had been ordered. Staff members from Councilman Paul Koretz's office contacted the Gold Card Desk several times to have tickets expunged for constituents who were cited after parking near a synagogue during Passover. Relaxed enforcement near the synagogue had earlier been ordered by city officials. A Koretz staff member said the complaints were reviewed and determined to be valid before they were referred to the department. Many of the citations mentioned in the documents appeared to involve routine reviews and were in line with what city officials said was the original intent of the Gold Card Desk. The Gold Card Desk was started about 15 years ago to provide a way for public officials to refer constituents' parking ticket problems to the transportation department. When Greuel released her audit, she decried the desk as potentially opening the door to favoritism and corruption. Villaraigosa ordered the desk closed the next day, saying even the appearance of preferential treatment was unacceptable. Many of the canceled citations were due to an error by the traffic officer, but a large share of dismissed tickets reviewed by The Times included little evidence or no reason why they were expunged. Often the only direction given to the Gold Card Desk workers was the number of the citation and an instruction to dismiss the ticket and/or issue a refund from a city transportation official. In the wake of the Gold Card Desk controversy, Greuel issued a memo this week to all city departments requesting that agencies receiving payments from citizens "identify and evaluate their current procedures regarding the process for affecting a reduction or cancellation of any amount due." She asked that department heads submit responses within about three weeks. Greuel said she still considers the Gold Card Desk an ill-advised program. It was "a system that was rife with the potential for abuse," Greuel said. ricardo.lopez2@latimes.com ari.bloomekatz@latimes.com |