Cristian Rivas
Journalism 1
Ms. Kate
Dec. 6 2018
Torrance City Council Meeting Coverage
On Dec.4 Torrance city council members adjourn council meeting with no resolution to the ongoing concerns brought fourth by the optimized street sweeping program and is to be further discussed the following Tuesday Dec. 11.
The optimized street sweeping program (OSS) was implemented in 2014 and has since caused residential concerns regarding the extensive usage of parking enforcement, the vast amount of tickets issued in the years following, and the city expenditures on the matter.
“It’s too late to change, it’s over with,” says Torrance city Mayor Patrick J. Furry.
Through the use of the OSS program, Torrance public works sanitation division hoped to achieve cleaner streets while complying with environmental regulations; installing catch basin trash screens, and enforcing parking restrictions on more streets during street sweeper operation hours, however, it has caused a number of concerns by local Torrance residents.
“Parking enforcement is inconvenienced by having to issue more useless tickets instead of focusing on more important matters,” concerned Torrance citizen Lisa Thompson, 47, said.
Parking enforcement officers patrol Torrance streets covering parking violators while on normal route alongside responding to citizen calls and even issuing citations later in the day through the use of photo enforcement making parking enforcers’ jobs more extensive.
“Ticket enforcement doesn’t have sufficient amount of ticket officers,” city council member, Aurelio Mattucci said.
Photo enforced tickets are issued by parking enforcement officers later in the day once they have already taken video, note of time and violation along with vehicle information so the violator can be cited properly, however the use of photo enforced tickets is rarely used due to the vast amount of time it takes an officer to issue these citations and the insufficient amount of parking enforcers available.
“$43 dollars is not excessive” Mattucci said.
With the addition of more “No Parking” street signs parking enforcement is encouraged to issue more $43 dollar fine tickets to local Torrance residents who fail to move their cars interfering with street sweeping protocols.
“I’d like to see the ticket go down to $25 dollars,” Mattucci said. “I’d like to park after street sweeper passes.”
Growing concerns from residents have influenced Torrance city council to suggest lowering the cost of the fine per citation, being more lenient to cars who have parked on the “No Parking” side after the street sweeper has already passed, and even suggesting to implement a blue curb for the ability of handicapped people to keep the cars stationed even on street sweeping days without citation.
“Public streets should be available for anyone” city council member, Geoff Rizzo said.
With the number of concerns and not enough time to concern them, the city council had to set aside their thoughts on the matter and opened the discussion to the public.
“It is unnecessary for the streets to be swept every week” Mike Harris, 54, citizen of Torrance for over 30 years, said. “It should be once a month at most,” Harris said.
Harris continued trying to persuade the council to implement some changes to the street sweeping program even reaching out to the city council for an Opt-out resolution where parking enforcement officers opt-out in issuing tickets to residents parked on street sweeping sides.
“I could not imagine the council would approve an opt-out option,” Matucci said.
Although a concern to citizens in Torrance, street sweeping schedule alterations will change the work schedules in place for both street sweeper drivers and parking enforcement officers as well as confusion for Torrance residents regarding when the street sweeping days are, City Attorney Patrick Q Sullivan mentioned.
Resident of Torrance, Jeremy Fernandez, 30, express his concerns regarding a local conspiracy theory regarding the use of parking enforcement as a form of making more money.
“Parking enforcement should not be a means for the city to gather revenue,” Fernandez said. “City’s primary interest should be to serve the public.
To conclude the discussion on street sweeping ordinance, city council member Mike Griffith requested for a city input on adding blue curbs for disabled citizens and for a six-month report update on cost and analysis of the program.
“The premise of the whole program was based on information that was not accurate,” Griffith said. “If we scratch our plan, what is the threat to the city?”
Works cited
“City of Torrance California.” Street Sweeping. City of Torrance. https://www.torranceca.gov/our-city/public-works/street-sweeping.
“City of Torrance California.” Optimized Weekly Street Sweeping FEAP800. City of Torrance. https://www.torranceca.gov/our-city/public-works/optimized-weekly-street-sweeping-feap800.
City of Torrance. Torrance City Council Agenda Dec.4 Regular Meeting. Torrance. City Council, 2018. http://torrance.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=8&event_id=7196. Dec. 5 2018.
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council City Hall. Adjournment of Tonight’s City Council Meeting. City of Torrance. LeRoy J. Jackson, 2018. http://torrance.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=8&event_id=7196&meta_id=292397. Dec. 5 2018.
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council City Hall. Street Sweeping Update. Torrance. LeRoy J. Jackson, 2018. http://torrance.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=8&event_id=7196&meta_id=292384. Dec. 5 2018.
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council City Hall. Supplemental #1. Torrance. LeRoy J. Jackson, 2018. http://torrance.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=8&event_id=7196&meta_id=292510. Dec. 5 2018.
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council City Hall. Supplemental #2. Torrance. LeRoy J. Jackson, 2018. http://torrance.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=8&event_id=7196&meta_id=292512. Dec. 5 2018.
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council City Hall. Supplemental #3. Torrance. LeRoy J. Jackson, 2018. http://torrance.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=8&event_id=7196&meta_id=292516. Dec. 5 2018.
Paulson, Clint. “Torrance City Council- A Town Hall Style Conversation About Local Politics.” Car2Go and the Optimized Street Sweeping Program. WordPress and Smartline. 19th of June 2014. http://torrancecitycouncil.com/?p=5
“Torrance City Council- A Town Hall Style Conversation About Local Politics.” The Optimized Street Sweeping Program (i.e. Sweepergate). WordPress and Smartline. http://torrancecitycouncil.com/?page_id=53.
ECC Union reporting by Cristian Rivas 