Abby Kahan, a bartender at Palmilla Cocina y Tequila on the Pier Plaza, stood at one of the central pay stations for the 300-plus parking meters at the municipal garage on Hermosa Avenue, peering at the screen through shades to shield her eyes from the Friday afternoon sun.
Although she’s used to the drill, often starting her shift at the pay station, she described the machine as unreliable. She said she has taken a printed receipt to City Hall to make sure she did not get a ticket.
“One time I had like 10,000 negative hours down there,” said Kahan, 28, ofTorrance. “It happened to one of my girlfriends too.”
As Kahan turned toward Palmilla, a group of four visitors from Seal Beach and Detroit, made a lingering stop at the pay station, using a credit card and then debating how much time they had purchased.
“Four hours, or four minutes?” Regen Robinson asked the others.
“I hope we don’t get a ticket,” one of the others said.
Asked about the experience, Scott Precop, the man with the credit card, said the pay station was not exactly a play station.
“It’s confusing, very confusing. I wanted to kick it,” he said. “You can quote me.”
City officials say they are working to fix bugs in three centralized pay stations for groups of parking meters, which have been installed at the parking structure and two other downtown lots.
Mayor Howard Fishman said the pay stations have drawn complaining emails and phone calls from motorists and business owners.
He said the volume of complaints is hard to judge. He’s received about three over the past six months, but business owners are usually speaking for a number of customers who have come to them.
“I think they are putting money in these pay stations, and there were some problems with that,” Fishman said.
“If the machine isn’t taking the money, we’re not getting that revenue, and if something is wrong with [the pay station], we end up voiding the ticket,” he said.
“We’re working out the kinks with the pay stations,” Fishman said.
City officials said they had significant issues early on with the wireless transmission of data between the pay stations, the individual meters and the computerized city database. They said those problems were cleared up, but they continued to work out other kinks as well.
The city is also in the process of upgrading hand-held equipment used by enforcement officers to write parking tickets throughout town.
“We are getting new hand-helds for the officers, which will be a boon for them, because the ones they’re using are old,” Finance Director Viki Copeland told the City Council last week.
