Thursday, February
25, 2010
Oakland parking officers were
ordered to avoid enforcing neighborhood parking violations in two of the city's
wealthier neighborhoods but told to continue enforcing the same violations in
the rest of the city, according to a city memo obtained by The Chronicle.
The July order is corroborated
by interviews with three parking officers, who said they and their colleagues
had complained about what they deemed a discriminatory practice since it began
last summer - to no avail.
"It's not fair," said Shirnell Smith, 44, a parking officer for 22 years who has
lived in Oakland for 24 years. Smith and the union representing parking
officers said the policy has resulted in tickets being issued
disproportionately to poor, black and Latino people.
The accusations cast a new light
on one of Oakland's most contentious issues during the past year. Desperate for
new revenue in a faltering economy, the City Council in June increased parking
fines, meter rates, hours of enforcement and enforcement in neighborhoods.
The parking department created a
new work shift to ticket neighborhoods at night. As part of that enforcement,
parking officers ticketed residents for violations that had been a way of life
for decades.
The most controversial tickets
in residential neighborhoods were issued for parking on sidewalks and parking
in the wrong direction. Residents told the city and The Chronicle that some
streets are so narrow that emergency vehicles cannot get through unless they
park like that.
Under pressure from businesses
that complained the new parking rules were keeping customers away, the council
in October rescinded only the meter enforcement from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., but left
other elements in place.
However, unknown at the time,
the parking department had deemed certain tony neighborhoods - Montclair and
Broadway Terrace - off-limits from those two parking infractions. Parking
violators in those neighborhoods were to receive "courtesy notices,"
according to a July 24 memo by Ronald Abernathy, a senior parking enforcement
supervisor, sent to four parking supervisors and copied to parking Director
Noel Pinto. The letter did not explain why the two neighborhoods were being
spared from the tickets, which carry fines ranging from $40 to $100.
Reached on his personal cell
phone Wednesday, Abernathy would only say, "I don't answer any media
questions."
Numerous calls and e-mails to
Pinto and City Administrator Dan Lindheim on
Wednesday were not returned.
On Outlook Avenue in East
Oakland, residents told The Chronicle that parking officers blanketed a
four-block stretch late last year. The streets are narrow there, too, as they
are in Montclair.
Luther Couch, 43, has lived on
the block for 41 years. He said that nearly everyone on his block has been
sideswiped, so parking on the sidewalk is a must. Nonetheless, he got a $100
ticket late last year for parking on the sidewalk.
Doing one thing in Broadway
Terrace and another in East Oakland is wrong, he said.
"To me, it's a double
standard: The higher up you live and the more clout you think you have, they
don't ticket you and sweep it under the rug," he said.
The three parking officers who
spoke to The Chronicle said their internal complaints have gone nowhere, so
they decided to make the issue public. They are doing so with the support of
their union, SEIU Local 1021, which is holding a noon rally on the issue today
in front of City Hall.
The officers said voicing
complaints is risky for most night-shift workers because they are part-timers
who can be fired at-will.
"I have absolutely no
rights within the city," said a part-time officer who asked to remain
anonymous. "It's not right for us to only ticket in certain areas. The
city of Oakland is one city."
Smith, a parking officer who
works full-time and has union protection, said that part of the reason there
was a desire to speak out was that parking officers have been harassed by
citizens aware of the practice of not ticketing certain neighborhoods.
Smith said the officers have
complied with the rule despite their disagreement with it.
"We're the only ones out
there in the field dealing with this," said the third officer who also
feared being named. "There are a lot of inconsistencies."
Smith said administrators need
to be held accountable.
"We're taking the brunt of
citizens' grief on this," said Smith. "Everyone needs to know this is
happening."
E-mail Matthai Kuruvila at mkuruvila@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the
San Francisco Chronicle