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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSB2544_20180911_LetterToLackeyCity of San Luis Obispo, Office of the City Council, 990 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93401-3249, 805.781.7114, slocity.org September 18, 2018 The Honorable Edmund G. Brown Governor, State of California State Capitol, First Floor Sacramento, CA 95814 VIA Email: Leg.Unit@gov.ca.gov RE: AB 2544 (Lackey): Parking Penalties. Request for VETO Dear Governor Brown, The City of San Luis Obispo urges your prompt veto of AB 2544 (Lackey). This bill would extend payment plan requirements originally contained in AB 503 (Chapter 741, Statutes of 2017) to include citations issued prior to May 1, 2018 and also require that previously accrued late fees be waived. It goes beyond the initial intent of AB 503 (that was just enacted last year) and will create significant burdens to local municipalities in both costs and operations. Cities worked with the State legislature to develop AB 503, but if retroactive provisions would have been anticipated during that process, the language of that bill likely would be entirely different. Individual cities throughout California are owed millions of dollars in late fees by registered vehicle owners with outstanding citations that were assessed to cover the administrative costs of collections and itemizations with the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Retroactive forgiveness proposed in AB 2544 would result in significant financial loss to local governments, while providing an incentive for delayed payment of bona fide parking violations. Cities have already begun implementation of the requirements of AB 503.. The additional requirements from this bill will result in increased workload beyond what was added by AB 503. Specifically, cities would have to verify indigent status for anyone requesting a payment plan for any citation issued over the last five years, not just new citations under last year’s bill. AB2544 would require staff to research and then refund fees previously collected over a prior five - year period when each request is received. Since our city converted our processing provider during this period of time, this would require checking in multiple systems, and increases the potential for error. Having to perform this level of research and to verify the status of each applicant would require additional staff to handle the additional workload while decreasing the funding available to pay for this additional work. Doing this retroactively is punitive to the local municipalities which have complied with all the regulations during this 5-year period, and now are being discarded because of AB2544. While cities share in the goal of providing assistance to people with unpaid parking violations, AB 2544’s retroactive application will create an even more burdensome process for local governments working to simply enforce local laws. Our local streets and roads are an essential part of our overall infrastructure and provide much more than just parking for our residents. The ability for cities to adequately enforce our parking regulations ensures that we can continue to deliver the public services our residents expect. Creating burdens for local government to perform the basic function of complete parking enforcement is a poor use of limited resources. For these reasons, the City of San Luis Obispo urges your veto on AB 2544. Sincerely, Heidi Harmon Mayor City of San Luis Obispo cc. Assembly Member Tom Lackey assemblymember.lackey@assembly.ca.gov Ronda Paschal, Deputy Legislative Secretary, Office of Governor Brown Leg.Unit@gov.ca.gov Dave Mullinax, dmullinax@cacities.org Meg Desmond, League of California Cities, cityletters@cacities.org