before. Never got a response from the City.
From: David Waldner
Date: August 2, 2024 at 9:42:53 PM CDT
To: [email protected]
Subject: Street Sweeping
Here is a huge part of the problem with street sweeping.
These cars blocking the sweeper are never ticketed.
Consequently, the street does not get swept near the cars and all the debris ends up in the storm drain and then to the beach which is a violation of the City’s stormwater management plan, which I believe is a State requirement/violation.
I have called Parking Enforcement and sent a message on the City’s website, resulting in no response. I am not the guy yelling at clouds, but this is such an obvious problem that is easily fixable. Ticket the cars. End of story.
Check out the pictures here and see the Easy Reader article.
A change in Redondo Beach parking enforcement
during street sweeping hours has drawn protests after a longstanding courtesy was lifted.
The Redondo Beach Police Department made an
announcement July 25, regarding the change.
The city council will discuss the matter Sept. 3.
Previously, people were allowed to re-park their cars
during street sweeping hours after the sweeper had
passed.
“There’s historically been a courtesy extended,” said
Police Chief Joe Hoffman. “Based on complaints we’re
receiving, the gap between the sweeper and parking
enforcement officer has grown, and (the officer) cannot distinguish what cars moved for the sweeper and reparked, or were illegally parked when the sweeper passed by.”
To address this, Hoffman said that the courtesy was
lifted to allow a parking enforcement officer to
“properly distinguish vehicles in violation, and
effectively enforce street sweeping throughout the
city.”
The amount of water used in local street cleaning has
been reduced in the last three years, the chief noted,
since Athens Services took over the Redondo Beach
contract from the city’s Public Works department. The
“misting system” Athens uses leaves less water
remnants on the street, thus parking officers are not
always able to tell if a parked car was there before or not.
“I’ve been getting messages on both sides of the issue,” Hoffman said. “No laws were repealed, no new laws
were added.”
At Tuesday night’s city council meeting, Councilman
Zein Obagi, Jr., relayed comments made to him.
“I’ve gotten a lot of complaints (about a certain street), that cars are parked, the street is not getting cleaned and the cars are not getting ticketed,” he said.
City Manager Mike Witzansky said the subject will be
on the Sept. 3 agenda for council discussion. He added
that an adjustment might be made to the municipal
code, to establish that when both the street sweeper and the parking enforcement vehicle have gone through, it
would be permissible for cars to park on the street
sweeping side of the street within restricted hours.
Mayor Jim Light asked Witzansky if this will be the
policy until the September meeting.
“By all accounts, I suspect that’s how we’ll proceed in the next month, but it’s going to be important that we
enshrine that in the code,” Witzansky said.
He added that, as part of the discussion, the council will be given information about “technology upgrades”
which may help the issue.
Chief Hoffman gave as an example of these, using a
license plate-reader so a parking enforcement officer
does not need to get out of their vehicle to issue a ticket (instead it is sent in the mail to the car’s owner), and to potentially adjust sweeper speeds to minimize the gap
between the sweeper and the parking officer.
“Hopefully we reach some kind of reasonable
modification that allows the city to properly clean the streets and enforce the rules and reduce the burden on
residents,” Hoffman said. “Since we’re well aware that
parking in Redondo Beach can be challenging.”
He said the number of tickets issued in the city has
stayed consistent from year to year.
Another possibility Hoffman said is to send out more
parking personnel.
“That still would not excuse the fact that the signs are very clearly stating that no parking is allowed… It still would not allow exemptions to the existing law,” the
chief said. “A lot of residents believe that was the law.
The citizens who are complaining have a point. I can
see both sides of the issue.” ER