Old Parking Tickets Come Back to Haunt Scofflaws

Remember that parking ticket you got in Hermosa Beach back in 1987 that you never paid?

Too bad if you don’t. The city does. And they want the money.

Misplaced computer information on as many as 1,800 parking tickets issued in late 1987 resurfaced last month when city workers began combing through old data.

Because of the computer glitch, the parking scofflaws, who owe at least $32,000 to the city, never received the required mailed notice of their transgressions.

Confronted with the lengthy list of old, unpaid tickets, acting general services director Henry LeRoy Staten realized that he had two options--dismiss all 1,800 of them and kiss the $32,000 goodby, or notify people to pay up.

He sent out the notices.

“I couldn’t just say, ‘OK, dismiss them all.’ I don’t think I have that authority,” Staten said. “So the idea was to notice the people and realize that . . . they never lose their right to contest the citation in court.”

Jeremy Loeb, one of the hundreds of people who received a notice two weeks ago, said he intends to do just that.

“I’ve gotten a few parking tickets in my time, but I always make a point of either paying them off right away or contesting them right away,” said Loeb, director of show productions at Warren Miller Productions on Pier Avenue.

“This is really unfair because I’m being denied due process,” he said in an interview Friday. “I don’t have records or a memory of where or how long I might have parked in December, 1987. Now I have no argument of whether I deserved it or not.”

To avoid having $28 in late penalties levied on top of his $18 ticket, Loeb said he was forced to pay the $18 ticket pending the outcome of a court hearing on Aug. 27. Parking scofflaws have 10 days after receiving the notice to pay the ticket without penalties.

Even if a judge does dismiss the ticket, Loeb said the situation has him steamed.

“It’s their word against mine and how am I supposed to remember what I did three years ago?”

Although Staten said he has not kept track of how many complaints his office has received, he acknowledged that Loeb is not alone.

“I have received calls from people who have asked questions about why these are so late,” Staten said. “People are asking, ‘Well, why did you wait so long to catch me?’ ”

Staten said he is not familiar enough with computer systems to understand exactly why the information was lost or how it was found. But he said data on the citations, anywhere from 1,700 to 1,800 of them, apparently did not get moved from an old computer system to a new one when the city switched some time ago.

“We’ve never had anything like this happen before,” he said. “When we send out late notices, they’re usually no later than two months, tops.”

City Councilman Robert Essertier, while startled that so much data could simply disappear and then reappear, said he is pleased that the money now can be collected.

“At $18 a ticket that would be, what, about $35,000?” he said. “That would pay Staten’s salary for a year. . . . It’s good to see that our city staff is getting the message that we want to collect the money that is due us.”

Councilman Albert Wiemans, however, was less exultant.

“I know we wanted people to be more efficient, but I think this is a bit much,” he said. “It looks like a bit of overkill.”