Existing law requires a specified administrative hearing process in the enforcement and processing of parking violations and penalties, and requires the issuing agency to conduct an initial administrative review of the notice of parking violation at the request of the contestant to whom the notice was mailed. Existing law authorizes an examiner conducting the hearing or the issuing agency to allow payment of the parking penalty in installments, and authorizes the issuing agency to defer payment if the contestant provides satisfactory evidence to the examiner or the issuing agency, as the case may be, of the inability to pay the parking penalty in full.

This bill would authorize the issuing agency to reduce or waive the parking penalty if the contestant provides satisfactory evidence of either an inability to pay the parking penalty in full or any other extenuating circumstances relevant to payment of the parking penalty, including, but not limited to, documented homelessness status and financial hardship.

Existing law authorizes a parking citation processing agency, as defined, to collect an unpaid parking penalty by requesting the Department of Motor Vehicles to place a registration hold on the vehicle to which the citations have been issued, or by obtaining a civil judgment against the registered owner of the vehicle, as specified. Existing law requires a processing agency to offer a payment plan for unpaid parking citations to qualified indigent persons. Existing law requires the payment plan to meet specified conditions, including, among others, that a person is allowed a period of 120 calendar days from the issuance of a notice of parking violation or 10 days after the administrative hearing determination, whichever is later, to file a request to participate in a payment plan.

This bill would allow the person to file a request to participate in a payment plan at any time.