BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2586
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(Without Reference to File)
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
2586 (Gatto)
As Amended August 19, 2016
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |66-11 |(June 2, 2016) |SENATE: | | (August 25, |
| | | | |23-11 |2016) |
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Original Committee Reference: TRANS.
SUMMARY: Makes changes to a variety of parking provisions.
The Senate amendments:
1)Delete provisions prohibiting valet parking services in
business districts from restricting motorists' ability to park
in available metered parking spaces and from prohibiting
motorists from using designated passenger loading areas.
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2)Delay implementation, until January 1, 2020, of the
requirement that local authorities who prohibit or restrict
parking or stopping of vehicles for street sweeping or other
maintenance activities, must make the street available to
motorists as soon as the activities are concluded, regardless
of the posted hours.
3)Provide that a vehicle may park for up to two hours, rather
than up to the posted time limit, at inoperable parking meters
or inoperable payment centers.
4)Clarify that a violation for exceeding the two hour "grace
period" at an inoperable meter is subject to civil penalties
and is neither an infraction nor public offense.
5)Make related, clarifying amendments.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY, this bill:
1)Declared the intent of the Legislature that if a local
authority prohibits or restricts parking or standing of
vehicles for the purposes of street sweeping, the local
authority shall ensure that parking is made available as soon
as the street sweeping is completed.
2)Deleted the sunset on provisions authorizing parking, up to
the posted time limit, at inoperable parking meters or in
operable parking payment centers (with kiosks), thereby
extending these provisions indefinitely.
3)Prohibited valet parking services in business districts from
restricting motorists' ability to park in available metered
parking spaces and from prohibiting motorists from using
designated passenger loading areas.
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4)Prohibited a local authority, when using contracted private
parking enforcement services, from promoting incentives
(monetary or otherwise) for issuing higher numbers of
violations or increasing fines to cover the costs of the
contracted enforcement services.
FISCAL EFFECT: None. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS: According to the author, every year cities issue
thousands of parking tickets to motorists for every imaginable
violation. He notes that in many cases these excessive
citations are driven by budget deficits that forced many local
governments to run their parking enforcement programs as
revenue-generation mechanisms rather than as a mechanism to
enforce sensible parking restrictions. He points out that these
excessive citations add up and that in 2014 alone, the City of
Los Angeles generated $165 million in citations and, similarly,
the City of San Francisco generated $130 million. The author
has introduced this bill, which he describes as a "Parking Bill
of Rights," to address a variety of parking offenses that he
believes are being excessively cited by local jurisdictions and
are overly punitive.
Broken Parking Meters: In 2012, SB 1388 (DeSaulnier), Chapter
70, established a general rule that a vehicle owner may park, up
to the posted time limit, without penalty, in any parking space
where the parking meter or parking payment center is inoperable.
SB 1388 contained a provision that allowed local jurisdictions
to adopt different rules, provided that adequate notice of the
rule was provided at the parking location. As a result, some
local jurisdictions began banning parking at inoperable meters
using posted signs to notify motorists, in compliance with SB
1388.
To address this loophole, Assembly Member Gatto introduced AB
61, Chapter 71, Statutes of 2013 to prohibit local jurisdictions
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from ticketing at inoperable meters. AB 61 included a sunset
provision making it inoperable after January 1, 2017. The
author contends that the intent of AB 61, to make as many
parking spaces available to motorists as possible, has been
achieved and it also created an incentive for local
jurisdictions to promptly repair or replace broken meters.
Local jurisdictions, on the other hand, contend, that AB 61,
while well intended, encouraged increased parking meter
vandalism which, when successful, allows motorists to park for
free. Given data that shows that parking meter vandalism is
more frequent at meters that offer longer term parking (such as
10-hour meters) and the fact that the majority of parking meters
are set at two hour increments, the author has amended this bill
such that a vehicle may only park for a maximum of two hours at
an inoperable parking meter. This amendment would allow the
parking spaces with inoperable meters to be utilized but would
discourage parking meter vandalism.
Private Parking Enforcement: The author points out that in the
face of limited manpower, many local governments have turned to
the privatization of parking enforcement operations. While the
author does not take issue with this method of performing this
much needed enforcement, he notes that some parking enforcement
contracts contain provisions that incentivize enforcement
contractors to issue citations. The author feels that these
practices results in overly harsh or unfair enforcement. While
it could be argued that these parties are simply enforcing
existing law, as the author points out, creating financial
incentives for these companies or other incentives, such as
improved prospects for renewed contracts, can lead to
overzealous enforcement resulting in costly fines to motorists
for what can be perceived as relatively minor offenses.
Please see the policy committee analysis for full discussion of
this bill.
Analysis Prepared by:
Victoria Alvarez / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093 FN: 0004816
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