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Four examples of altered or forged disabled placards confiscated by Santa Rosa parking enforcement officers.
By KEVIN MCCALLUM
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
When it comes to parking, society affords disabled drivers some notable privileges.
They receive prime reserved parking spaces and get free parking in public spaces all day, every day.
But an increasing number of able-bodied drivers appear to be abusing those privileges by using disabled windshield placards that are forged, expired or don’t belong to them.
“The dishonesty in people blows me away,” said Toni Guanella, Santa Rosa’s parking supervisor.
To combat the problem, Guanella on Tuesday will ask the City Council to authorize steep new fines — $750 — for people misusing disabled placards.
Currently, city parking enforcement officers who suspect someone is misusing a disabled placard to get free parking can issue a $33 citation, the same fine someone gets when they forget to feed the meter. Fines for illegally parking in a marked handicapped spot are $288.
Criminal penalties of up to $3,500 can apply for multiple offenses, but those must be enforced by police officers through the issuance of misdemeanor citations.
In 2009, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law aimed at curtailing placard abuse. It allows local jurisdictions to impose fines of $250 to $1,000.
Last year, there were 2.4 million disabled placards in the state, the equivalent of 11 percent of the 22 million registered vehicles, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles. In Sonoma County, there were nearly 32,000 placards, a number that had grown 165 percent since 1994. The county’s population rose 16 percent over the same period.
Over the past six months, Santa Rosa parking enforcement officers have confiscated at least 40 placards suspected of being misused, Guanella said.
The main reason the city wants to clamp down is to free up spaces for people who need them, said Cheryl Woodward, the city’s parking director.
“It’s really intended to deter folks who are deliberately misusing the system and creating problems for folks who are legitimately entitled to use disabled spaces,” Woodward said.
The city also has a financial incentive to limit abuse.
The placards entitle drivers to park not only in prime designated spaces, but also in all metered spaces for free with no restrictions. That means a disabled driver can occupy a spot on the street in front of a downtown office or business all day. The same goes for city garages and surface lots.
If people are misusing those placards, that’s lost revenue for the parking district, though Woodward said that is not the city’s motivation for the new fines.
Often it’s not parking enforcement officers who spot the abuse, but people who resent seeing others game the system.
One typical incident involved a downtown merchant calling to report a woman in her 20s who was in the habit of dashing across the street in high-heels on her way to a salon. The city investigated and found the placard was issued to a man in his 40s. The permit was revoked by DMV over the abuse, Guanella said.
In another incident, a woman told co-workers she drove her husband’s truck to work because its placard meant she didn’t have to pay to park in a city garage. They reported her and the placard was confiscated.
One common abuse occurs when a temporary placard is used after it’s expired. There are two types of placards. One is for people with temporary ailments, such as a broken ankle, and are issued for a duration determined by a health care provider. Placards for people with permanent disabilities are for two years and are automatically renewed.
Offenders have forged placards by changing the dates. Others misappropriate placards after a family member dies, an abuse made possible because the DMV automatically mails renewal placards to the last known address but doesn’t have a system to track deaths, Guanella said.
“They just don’t have any tracking at all for these,” she said.
The fines are appealable through the city process and courts. San Francisco’s fine for the same offense is $935.
Aware that $750 is a stiff penalty for many people, city officials said they will try to separate those who intended to defraud from, for example, an elderly person whose valid permit had recently expired, Guanella said.
“We will have the same philosophy we have on every one of our parking tickets,” she said. “There will be flexibility.”
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The ticket is an order to appear in court. You may avoid the court appearance by admitting guilt and paying the fine. If you appear and are found guilty court costs will be added to the fine.
Fed Up- how do you know they aren’t disabled? Did you ask them? Some look fit but aren’t. Just because they aren’t in a wheelchair or on crutches doesn’t mean they are hale and hearty.
Lots of people have chronic pain, conditions like MS that don’t manifest yet but get tired easily which is disabling, serious heart and lung conditions that limit movement. So judgemental-maybe jealous?
I wouldn’t want to NEED a disabled parking pass.
As for the JC-there are lots of disabled students that attend the JC and you all haven’t a clue about what their conditions are. Where’s the compassion?
As for the people who use placards because they are lazy, well they deserve a REALLY EXPENSIVE TICKET. Some of these placards belong to another family member and are used routinely by other family members. They deserve a REALLY EXPENSIVE TICKET TOO.
Handicap parking is a great example of public bureaucracy gone off the tracks. Too many non-qualified people getting permits, too much abuse of permits and too many handicap parking spaces allocated given the use.
“Currently, city parking enforcement officers who suspect someone is misusing a disabled placard to get free parking can issue a $33 citation”
The key work here is “suspect”. If you can get a ticket because someone suspects you have violate a parking ordinance then we have some really big problems in Santa Rosa. What happened to innocent until proven guilty?
Just change the number of required spaces. Do we really need 36 handicapped spaces at the JC’s front parking lot? Or 24 at Home Depot? We just have to get a handle on the regulations. Some of these mom and pop places have 2 out of three spaces handicapped because of some absurd regulations and would get sued under the ADA if they didn’t.
Driving is a privilege, not a right. And until motor vehicle laws are enforced, you are going to see people taking advantage of the fact that society does not want to see people punished. The public wants tough laws, but never wants to see them enforced. Start taking licenses away for years for infractions or tossing people in jail for years as punishment for infractions, and you will see people starting to behave.
But just look for example at how undocumented drivers are treated, and then claim driving laws are enforced. Or get the DA’s brother to represent you when you commit a hit and run and the victim dies; your dads a DA in a neighboring county and your charged with falsifying an ID, buying liquor and drunk driving in which one person is killed and another is in a coma still years later, no problem. Go before a Sonoma County judge and it’s going to be another slap on the wrist.
So sensationalizing like the PD does about handicapped stickers, or red light runners, is like tossing a bucket of slop into the wind and hoping that you don’t get any blown back into your face. It’s just filler space to sell newspapers. Bottom line, nothing is going to change because of either the public goes squeamish listening to the (explicitive deleted) do-gooer lawyers/self interest groups, or the judges make the insider decision and let the offender off.
Take a trip to Palo Alto on a school day and watch how many of the Stanford students are “handicapped”. It is stunning.
What happens down there is the parents of the students bribe their way to a placard. I know people who have done this and students who still have them. It is ridiculous. But no one does anything about it. Those with money pay off anyone who would say anything.
When the state begins to control the issuance of handicap placards, this rule can be taken seriously. Too many fit drivers using unfit handicap placards and abusing very limited parking. It all starts with doctors signing off on phony disabilities and fit drivers using relatives permits to park.
There are also too many handicap parking spaces being mandated relative to the number of handicap drivers.
This whole thing has gotten out of hand.
About time!!! I work with disabled and see people abusing the handicapped parking spaces all the time. In fact just last Wednesday someone was parked in one with no placard or special license plate and the business where they were didn’t say anything to them as the driver had a disabled passenger with them that was doing business there. You still need a placard!