OCEAN PARK — A number of people received parking tickets for violating street sweeping restrictions in error last week while Ocean Park Boulevard was being repaved, said Santa Monica Police Sgt. Jay Trisler.
Because the city sent a notice saying street sweeping restrictions would not be enforced while Ocean Park Boulevard was being repaved, the city will dismiss any ticket given during the work, Trisler said.
In a week in advance of repaving Ocean Park Boulevard between 18th and 25th streets from May 11-13, the city sent a notice to residents and business owners stating, among other things, normal street sweeping restrictions would not be enforced for a two-block radius during those three days.
Anyone who received a ticket, as well as the original notification, can contact the police department at (310) 458-2226.
“We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused,” Trisler said.
Jessica Arden, a civil engineering associate in the Department of Public Works who is overseeing the repaving, said people can also contact her office.
The repaving of Ocean Park Boulevard is part of a larger city-wide project funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, more commonly known as the stimulus package. The project started May 3 and will last until June 4, according to the city’s website.
Though there is no official count of how many tickets were distributed, Paul Birmele, who received a ticket on Oak Street on May 11, said he noticed at least 30 tickets on parked cars on that street alone, which is one block away from Ocean Park Boulevard.
“One department is obviously not communicating with the other,” Birmele said.
Arden said she is unsure why the mistake was made, but suspects there might have been a staffing change in traffic enforcement that might have led to a miscommunication.
Despite city reassurances that the tickets will be taken care of, Birmele said he is facing difficulties getting his ticket reversed.
City hall “instructed me to type up a letter, saying why I'm contesting this, along with copies of the ticket and the Street Construction Project Notice sent out by the city engineering department, and they would ‘put it up for review and I would get a decision mailed,’” Birmele said in an e-mail. “This is absurd. Even with the notice in hand from the city they still need to ‘put it up for review.’ All of this is an absolute waste of time and money.”
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