You can still get a parking ticket in Sacramento during the coronavirus crisis. Here’s why
It may be a pandemic, but Sacramento residents still have to move their vehicles once a week for “city services” or risk getting hit with a ticket.
The city of Sacramento has stopped issuing parking tickets for overdue meter payments and some other infractions, but continues to issue citations to cars parked in a “no parking” zone on the day of the week parking is prohibited, so crews can pick up recycling, yard waste and perform street sweeping.
“Garbage service is very important because with the shelter-in-place order there’s a lot of residents at home right now so you need to have garbage pickup,” said Matt Eierman, the city’s parking services manager.
Even with residents ordered to stay home, parking enforcement officers, deemed “essential employees” are still out on the streets, issuing $52.50 citations for cars parked in posted “no parking” zones on the days city services are performed. Those services can include garbage, recycling, and trash pickup, as well as street sweeping, which occurs between 8 a.m. and noon.
The city is also issuing citations for so-called safety violations, including parking in disabled parking areas; in red zones; in bike lanes; in bus layover areas; in intersections; on sidewalks; or in a way that blocks a fire hydrant, a driveway or an alley, Eierman said.
For non-safety related violations, such as expired meter payment or parking on a street without the proper permit, the city is currently issuing warnings, which do not require payment, Eierman said. Since Wednesday, the city has issued 708 warnings, Eierman said.
On Thursday alone, the day after Sacramento County’s shelter-in-place order was issued, the city handed out 148 citations and 246 warnings, said Grace Nunez, a city spokeswoman.
The city will return to issuing citations for expired meters and other non-safety violations after officials see the number of daily warnings decrease, indicating people have learned they still need to pay for parking, Eierman said. He did not provide an estimate of when that would happen.
Eierman said if the city stopped enforcement of meters altogether, many residents would leave cars at meters for long periods of time and there likely would be no spots available for those going to work, grocery stores and restaurants.
“If you’re trying to get take out and you can’t get access to that restaurant, well then the business suffers,” Eierman said. “The reason is not for the revenue it’s for the turnover for the spaces.”
People can park for free at meters after 4:30 p.m. and on weekends, however, at least until mid-April, pursuant to a City Council ordinance adopted March 13. Other changes would require another council action, Eierman said. The city is also offering a temporary $6 “early bird special” in all city-owned garages for drivers who park before 10 a.m. and leave the garage after 4:00 p.m.
Both Los Angeles and San Francisco have stopped issuing tickets for street sweeping at least through the end of the month, the mayors of both cities announced last week. Neither city has waived meter payments, though. Oakland, like Sacramento, is still issuing street sweeping tickets, but not enforcing meter payments.
To help those financially impacted by the virus, Los Angeles has also extended all parking ticket deadlines to June 1.
Sacramento does not have plans to extend its deadline, but has available payment plans based on financial hardship, Eierman said.
Drivers confused, frustrated
Anthony Nanni, a midtown resident, was surprised to find a $52.50 ticket affixed to his windshield Thursday morning.
“I had been given a work-from-home order from my work earlier in the week so I hadn’t planned on doing anything outside,” Nanni said. “I just assumed city enforcement would be in line with the state message and it seemed to not follow it, by what I was seeing, so I was definitely surprised.”
He plans to appeal the ticket, he said.
On Sunday, Lisa Kaplan, seeing her local Natomas grocery stores were out of eggs, headed down to the Sunday Farmer’s Market under the W/X freeway, an area she was unfamiliar with. She parked on Sixth Street near W street. When she came out after about 20 minutes, she found a $52.50 ticket for parking in a bus layover area. She hadn’t seen any “no parking” signs, she said.
“I was very surprised because the market is deemed essential so why are we ticketing on something that’s deemed essential?” said Kaplan, who is a Natomas Unified School Board member. “While I can pay it, I’m more worried about everyone else who can’t.”
Towing changes
The Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness has asked the city to stop towing vehicles left on the street for more than 72 hours. Many homeless people get the vehicles they are living in towed that way, and are often unable to come up with the hundreds of dollars and paperwork required to get the cars back.
Police are no longer actively looking for vehicles to tow for that reason because of the statewide stay-at-home order, police spokespeople said in an email.
The department continues to tow cars for other reasons, though. On Friday, the department towed eight recovered stolen vehicles, two for expired registration over six months and two for driving on a suspended license, the email said.
The city’s code enforcement officers, who also tow vehicles, are also not towing vehicles left on the street for more than 72 hours currently, Nunez said in an email. They are, however, still towing vehicles that are determined to be abandoned, that are obstructing traffic and dismantled vehicles creating a hazard for the community, Nunez said.
This story was originally published March 24, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
