living, thinking and writing
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| PRACTICE living, thinking and writing |
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Tuesday, December 30, 2003 Why California has the biggest deficit of all? In Los Angeles, I do not get as many parking tickets as I used to have in Pittsburgh, but certainly I have to spend much more time here to appeal (for poor people, time is less precious than money). In Pittsburgh, you go to the assigned court any weekday night and the judge made the decision (sometimesplus a joke) in less than 45 seconds (o yes, I counted, I had been there more than five times), then you pay or not pay, everything is settled. The fine is more than 3 times higher in LA, and the whole procedure felt like a felony trial rather than just a parking citation. First scene is the same overwhelming: “what?.. A ticket? ..$50?!.. What?! The sign was saying parking is permitted in Sunday… wait, wait… damn, there is another sign saying permit needed. Damn, it’s confusing..three cars in a row got the tickets. Zeze, Ok, let’s get it waived, we've got good reasons.” Wait, it is not easy to get it waived, even you have good reasons. First, you have to plea in writing for an administrative review and send it in together with your “evidence”. Well, you have learnt to bring digital camera around and shoot everything for future dispute, so the picture with two confusing signs along the street should be enough, you assumed. Two weeks later, you received a letter telling you that “a field investigation of the location” finds that “the ticket citation is properly posted” (What?! Do you really look at the photo evidence?!). Sure you are entitled to bring your dispute to the court, but not before you pay the fine first, which is said to be refunded if the judge later decides to waive it. Again, you have to request in writing for a hearing, and then you will be informed by mail of your appointment. Hearing ain’t the last stop, you would not hear the judge’s decision at court in the first place, instead the decision will be mailed to you later. (What?! Aren’t all judges verdict at court?) It doesn’t need high IQ to infer that the city makes it hard for parking violators to have money back, but how much more personals and how much more work have to be involved in this big “money-making industry”? Compared to Pittsburgh where only police officer, judge and cashier handle parking citation, Los Angeles traffic court needs much more cumbersome organization: staff to deal with three or four turns of correspondence if a driver determined to have money back- open and seal mails, file and print out mails; judge’s secretaries to acknowledge judges’ decision by mail; cashiers to process payments and later refund the money…Are all these really necessary? It boiled down to the fact that is taxpayer’s money feeding bureaucracies and running in this bureaucratic procedure. While governors (now and then) have been busy on cutting budget on medical care and public education, why not consider cut off this big fat bureaucracy? posted by lmeimei @1:19 AM| permanent link| | |
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