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Call Kurtis: Lawmaker Wants to Give Californians a Parking Bill of Rights

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) —  Les Pierce who lived downtown on P Street told us in 2014 how the City of Sacramento wrote street sweeping tickets when it wasn't cleaning the streets during the posted hours.

"I think if the sign says street cleaning, then they should be cleaning the streets," he said.

Our investigation dug through city records and found between November 2012 and November 2013, Pierce's block on P Street was swept just three times — and never on a Tuesday when cars are prohibited from parking there.

"Yet they give tickets out on the street every single week," Pierce said.

Between July 1 and November 20 of 2013, Sacramento parking enforcement records showed 93 street cleaning tickets written for the three-block stretch of P street, totaling $4,882.50.

Democratic Assemblyman Mike Gatto is proposing the parking bill of rights that would prevent California cities and counties from writing street cleaning tickets after the streets have already been cleaned. He also tells CBS13 he doesn't think they should be ticketing people if they aren't cleaning the streets.

He says his bill will also outlaw tickets at broken parking meters, keep cities from hiring private companies to act as "parking bounty hunters" and make it illegal for valets to use public parking spots.

  • "Occasionally the state needs to step in and remind our local governments that parking a vehicle should be an efficient practice, and not another big hassle designed to separate motorists from their money," said Gatto in a news release.  "These simple and practical policy changes will make life easier for Californians who just want to park their cars and go about their business."

After our 2014 investigation, the City of Sacramento refused to dismiss the parking tickets written when the streets weren't being cleaned, but re-evaluated its street cleaning signs, removed them from streets not regularly being swept including the one on Les Pierce's block of P Street.

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