Meter maids employed by a for-profit, foreign company are confronting motorists and seizing disabled parking permits at the direction of the city of West Hollywood, California. Earlier this month, officials announced a “crack down” on the abuse of restricted-use parking spaces by having meter maids determine whether the users of disabled parking permits are legitimately handicapped.
“Under a program initiated by the city of West Hollywood’s Parking Division, drivers displaying disabled placards may be randomly approached to provide proof of placard ownership,” a city press release explained. “Failure to provide the required identification card will result in the confiscation of the disabled placard and a parking citation for misuse, which carries a $500 fine.”
Suspect motorists would be stopped and questioned by private employees of the British company, Serco Group plc which took over parking enforcement for the city in May 2006. Under its contract with West Hollywood, Serco must disguise the company’s involvement in parking enforcement. The Serco-owned office where meter maids report must display signs that make it appear to be a city-owned location. Serco’s nine Toyota Prius vehicles and all employees must meet the city’s strict requirements that they be indistinguishable from official cars and workers.
“Vehicles must not have any company ID, name or logo,” the contract states. “All shirt and jacket sleeves and hats are to have an emblem patch designating West Hollywood Parking Enforcement… All uniforms are to include a metal name tag, identification number and badge which must be worn at all times.”
Despite the requirement to confront drivers, confiscate property and impose a substantial monetary penalty, the city requires very little ability or training for its meter maids. A prospective Parking Meter Compliance Agent only needs a GED and the completion of a one-week training course to qualify for the job.
“Little creativity and latitude is expected,” a posting for a $10.60 per hour Serco meter maid position in Chicago, Illinois stated.
The city pays a $164,595 monthly fee to Serco for 20 meter maids and 11 supervisors for a total annual cost of $2 million. The contract is key to balancing municipal finances.
“Revenues in fiscal year 2009-10 are expected to reach a five year low,” the city’s 2010-2012 budget explained. “The four top revenue producers for the general fund continue to be transient occupancy tax, sales and use tax, property tax and parking fines… Parking fines are expected to increase by over 20 percent due to the increasing citation amount.”
The city raised the cost of parking citations and parking meter rates to boost revenue from $9,986,900 in revenue to $11.2 million for fiscal 2011 — an amount greater than that generated from sales and property taxes. The city is also counting on $1.3 million in profit from its red light camera program.
[Courtesy:Thenewspaper.com]
So is the main thrust of this article that the meter maids work for a private, for-profit organization, or is it that they’re asking for documentation from handicap permit users?
The headline is for the latter, but the bulk of the article is the former.
No problem with yanking handicapped stickers from those not qualified.
The politics around the other issues in the article — from the outsourcing to needing parking fines to balance the budget — that’s a whole other thing
Nothing annoys me more than the fat woman pulling her Lexus SUV into a handicap spot and waddling in to the store to use her food stamp card. Ya know?
The ghost of Ronald Reagan is here with us.
Reminds me of some of my fellow engineers that complain when tax season rolls around. Claim that they’d be better off living on welfare, quitting their job, etc. Yeah, my job is stressful and I don’t like that I bring home only 60% or so of what I earn, but I’ll take my life where I just returned to a nice home from a fun 10 day vacation to Europe over living off the state even if it did, via hyperbole, include a Lexus SUV I currently cannot afford.
It isn’t like everything I’ve gotten in life came down to me alone. I had parential and social/economic advantages, outside assistance (scholarships, etc), and just flat out good fortune along the way.
Chicago Dude +1. Nice caricature, Contra.
That said, my office parking lot has a facilities doofus who rolls up in his Lincoln Navigator who ALWAYS parks diagonal across 3 handicapped spaces around 2 pm.
Granted, the office is 1/5th occupied, and no one to my knowledge is physically handicapped (dude, there are three ‘regular’ spaces 15 feet further out you can “park” on.)
It takes all the serenity I can muster to walk by that rebadged black Expedition and not do something untoward to the doofus’ rims.
There is plenty of handicap permit abuse in LA but it’s RICH people who pay their doctor for the permit.
Foodstamps don’t get you there
Seems to me that this issue could be handle more easily, more professionally and in a less confrontational way at the issuance stage of the permit process than having meter maids determine a person’s disability based solely on their visual guesstimate. I see many lawsuits in their future.
I’m pretty sure that handicapped stickers are given out in WV along with your driver’s license. There doesn’t seem to be a guideline for how long they are to be issued, either.
I think that the meter maids are also looking at situations where say a father has a sticker for his kid… but uses the sticker when the kid is not with him. I can’t imagine that this happens often enough to generate enough cash to pay back the contract, though.
Back in the early nineties there was a spate of handicap enforcement in the mid-Atlantic. It was done “privately” by thugs who would politely break the knees of observed violators.
The problem, of course, is that not all legitimately handicapped people have obvious handicap flags like canes or wheelchairs. Some conditions are respiratory or may be intermittent.
Presumably, once your knees are broken you’re handicapped, so the problem solves itself.
They’re all up in arms about Arizona checking the identities of illegal aliens, but for them to check the “papers” of US citizens is A-OK.
Which “they”? I’m opposed to both. Sorry to upset your worldview. Illegal immigration is a much bigger hotbutton issue than people forging handicap parking passes; it’d be unreasonable to expect a similar outcry. Using the lack of one to (presumably) justify hypocrisy on the part of those who oppose the Arizona law, and thus the acceptability of it, is pretty rich.
I don’t like to make generalizations, but I think I’m on pretty safe ground assuming that the city fathers of West Hollywood who approve of this program also disapprove of the Arizona law. But I’m more enjoying the irony than casting aspersions.
Another irony is how you make my point: because fraudulently displaying a handicap placard is a more minor crime, there should be MORE outrage over the enforcement methods. It makes more sense to use more robust techniques for more serious crimes like entering the country illegally.
It would be nice to seem some type of better enforcement of handicapped parking abuse. 95% of the people I see in the handicapped spaces got them for their grandparents or some other family member and now think it is a license for them to grab the best spots. I’m not talking about the ones that are handicapped but don’t have an obvious condition like MS or CPD, but the ones that fly into the handicapped spots, leap out of their cars and jog into the store.
We have had a few arguments break out at the gym I go to. Most of the parking is out back. But there are two handicapped parking spots right near the front door. Those spots are sometimes fiercely fought over.
That’s ironic. People go to the gym to work out. Yet they don’t want to walk 100 feet to the gym’s front entrance.
Granted, there are a few older people who go to the gym who do have trouble walking. But I have never seen any of them park in the handicapped spots. I have seen some of them parking farther out — I assume they want to walk in to get some exercise.
One woman caught my eye when she got out of the car she had just parked in a handicapped spot, with placard dangling from her mirror. She looked healthy. I later saw her inside, walking on a treadmill. That did look very suspicious.
I stay out of it. But it does look like abuse is pretty rampant. I can see why feelings get hot.
Anyone else notice this: 11 supervisors for 20 meter maids? This surely is wrong.
That’s probably a misquote, it’s probably one supervisor supervisor & ten ordinary supervisors for twenty metermaids. What are they gonna do, shadow the maids during their entire shift?
Serco’s nine Toyota Prius vehicles
I’m as vehement a Prius hater as much as the next guy, but these kind of tossaway comments in TTAC articles make me question its credibility as a whole. The kind of cars the company uses is irrelevant – making a point of mentioning it smacks of jingoism. Which, come to think of it, is particularly bizarre coming from a site which seems to like the domestic auto industry as much as a case of the clap.
Hmmm…You bring up a very good point. I’m with you about “science project” cars and the needless complicated waste of technology just to get one’s behind carted around town. I also agree about the comment about the domestic auto industry. In spite of its sins over the decades, it’s the only one we’ve got and I don’t think you’ll see the likes of the car I used to own represented by my avatar again, but I never give up hope. Everything ever written is merely an opinion by someone, but if this website is about TRUTH, then its writers should at least be objective and criticize equally concerning “foreign” vs. “domestic”.
Nice job calling them out!
Not trying to pick on you, but the comment is in the cited article, it’s not a snarky aside from TTAC. Not that TTAC hasn’t made more than their share…
I’m just waiting for the lawsuits to start:
Father goes to pick up handicapped (wheelchair bound) son/daughter/wife at activity. As he gets out of his van, he’s asked to prove his handicap. He doesn’t have a handicap, kid does. Kids activity doesn’t finish for another 15 minutes and he’s unavailable until then. Handicapped placard seized, city sued.
Person with non-obvious handicap asked to “prove” it (when say it’s a lung or heart condition). Placard seized. City sued.
Not all handicaps are obvious. Not all handicapped people need or use the placards. (I fit definition 2 and don’t have a placard).
My dad has both a heart & knee condition & qualifies for a handicapped placard. My mom has only 20% hearing. She doesn’t qualify. They only have 1 car and often do things together. Sometimes she goes to pick him up. If you look at him, you’d think he’s not handicapped…nothing obvious.
I hope the city gets sued into oblivion.
Also: Are all the requirements for obtaining & using a placard the same between states? How is it handled if the person from another state — who qualifies in their home state to have a placard — doesn’t qualify in west hollywood?
Sorry, a $10.60 per hour subcontracted meter maid is NOT QUALIFIED to make a judgment on a person’s handicap. A police officer really isn’t, either. Only a healthcare professional can.
For better or worse, abuse will continue because a limited number of people can determine who’s worthy and who isn’t.
Case in point: my sister had brain surgery (30 years ago, she’s still around) and had a temporary handicap permit after leaving the hospital. Since the incision was in the back of her head and was only shaved in that area, she could cover it with her hair, so it wasn’t obvious.
She parks in a spot and a lady gets in her face thinking she’s young and spry and doesn’t need the permit. My sister then explains the situation and asks if the lady wants to see the scar. The lady snaps back, “I don’t want to see your BRAIN!” and storms off.
If the permit is valid, leave it the hell alone.
If you can stop me from taking your disabled placard from you, you aren’t disabled.
If the meter maid wants to write a ticket for failure to provide ID, that’s fine.
But confiscating a disabled placard? That’s where they may get into legal/lawsuit hot water. I don’t know California law, but I doubt these are law enforcement officers.
If the law allows you to ask for ID and it’s not provided, the meter maid should write the ticket and allow it to be contested.
And the disabled rights lobby needs to chill a bit. There’s so much abuse and fraud out there, minor enforcement inconveniences should be tolerated.
For long term disabilities parking, are special plates with suitable identification card not available in ca, or is a place card only available?
Serco is hiring meter maids here in Chicago for a $8.50 per hour. One day one of these low rent employees will react badly to an irate vehicle owner. I pay God that Serco is then sued back into the stone age.