LADOT misses out on $15 million in revenue



Listen to an audio story by Annenberg Radio News:

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image There are significant issues of waste, and there are financially irresponsible decisions made by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation — at least that’s what City Controller Wendy Greuel found in a recent investigation of the department.

Greuel found that the city missed out on nearly $15 million in revenue this past year. The report that Greuel’s office issued shows the Department of Transportation failed to impound or put boots on three-quarters of vehicles with five or more unpaid parking tickets. The city calls these particular offenders “scofflaws.”

“We believe just slapping another ticket on someone who has 20 tickets, and saying they might pay the ticket now because it’s the 21st ticket, is not a way to do things efficiently,” Greuel said.

The controller’s office said the Department of Transportation didn’t use its License Plate Recognition equipment, which could have caught repeated ticket offenders.

The department’s Interim General Manager Amir Sedadi said they didn’t use it because management decided to shift staff away from enforcing these particular laws. But now, he says that will change.

“I assure you our traffic officers at LADOT will be out there every day, every month, every year using the latest technologies in the fight against scofflaws,” Sedadi said.

Greuel said it was a “goof” not to aggressively punish these offenders.