Council to Vote Tonight on Booting Cars With 5 or More Unpaid Citations

The Pasadena City Council tonight will hear and vote on the first reading of a proposed ordinance which would lead to the “booting” or immobilizing of parked cars whose owners are found to have multiple past due parking citations.

“The idea is to make it less expensive for someone to recover their vehicle, versus being impounded which is a process with more steps that costs more,” said Pasadena Parking Manager Jon Hamblin. “There hasn’t been much negative feedback from city groups.”

Leaving booted cars on the street will reduce already scarce parking, at least one business leader points out.

“I can see it getting complicated especially when the availability of parking is already an issue,” said Playhouse District Association Executive Director Brian Wallace.

According to a report by the City’s Transportation Department, city parking enforcement staff impounded 183 vehicles that had five or more delinquent parking citations last year. If the booting program is approved it is estimated to affect approximately 200 vehicles annually.

“It seems to be counter intuitive to put a boot on a car and leave it overnight when the city doesn’t allow overnight parking to begin with,” explained Wallace.

According to Pasadena Parking Manager Hamblin, the idea of booting a car should be embraced when comparing it to your car being taken to a tow yard unexpectedly.

“Going out and not seeing your car, whether it was towed or stolen, is a terrible feeling. I would personally much rather see a boot on my car and know what’s going on right then and there,” said Hamblin.

The city plans on booting a limited amount of cars in order to help alleviate the demands of traditional towing.

“What we don’t want to do is boot a large amount of cars and leave people without parking spaces,” said Hamblin. “If this ordinance is to pass we would strategically come up with a policy that decides where boots would be administered and to what extent. We aren’t planning on booting cars in every corner of the city.”

The Transportation Department explained the capital cost of booting equipment – about $1,500 per boot – and staff labor cost to install or recover the boots would all be recoverable because the city would charge a Boot Fee at the same time as the parking violation citation fee.

A secondary proposal according to Monday’s agenda reveals plans to select Newport Beach based company Data Ticket, Inc. to handle citation collections for the 2017 fiscal year in which the city anticipates to collect approximately $200,000 annually.

The agenda also includes a proposal to amend the current overnight parking ordinance exempt businesses with early morning hours in business districts due to the recognized negative effect on certain businesses that are open to the public early in the morning and do not have off street parking.