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BACKGROUND <br /> In 1993, the State of California decriminalized parking citations and transferred the <br /> processing of the citations from the court system to the agencies that issue parking <br /> citations, such as the City of Pleasanton. When Pleasanton began processing parking <br /> citations in 1993, the City amended its Master Fee Schedule to include parking violation <br /> penalties. The penalties have not been revised since their adoption. <br /> In 2008, the State Legislature enacted Senate Bill 1407 to provide, in part, for enhanced <br /> revenues to the State Court Facilities Construction Fund to finance immediate and <br /> critical needs construction and renovation projects of court facilities throughout the <br /> State. SB 1407 enables the State to issue up to $5 billion in revenue bonds to help pay <br /> for courthouse construction and renovation. Repayment costs are estimated at about <br /> $300 million annually. The State will obtain a significant share of the costs to finance <br /> the bonds by raising various penalties, including those for parking citations. These <br /> increases are passed to the issuing agencies, like the City of Pleasanton. <br /> Prior to SB 1407, state law required that Pleasanton remit to Alameda County $5.00 for <br /> each parking citation collected to finance state courthouse and criminal justice facility <br /> construction. SB 1407 increased the amount to $9.50. <br /> Proposed Penalty Increases <br /> SB 1407's adoption prompted staff to evaluate the parking penalties assessed by <br /> Pleasanton and other cities throughout Alameda County, including Alameda, Albany, <br /> Berkeley, Dublin, Emeryville, Fremont, Hayward, Livermore, Newark, Oakland, <br /> Piedmont, San Leandro and Union City, as well as the Traffic Infraction Fixed Penalty <br /> Schedule found in the Uniform Bail and Penalty Schedules (per California Rules of <br /> Court, Rule 4.102). Some of these cities have revised their parking citation penalties in <br /> response to SB 1407, others are in the process, and a few may not be taking any action. <br /> In six months, staff will again survey the cities to determine whether further revisions <br /> should be proposed. With a few exceptions described below, the proposed penalty for <br /> each violation is an average of the penalties assessed by the surveyed cities. The <br /> proposed penalties are included in the proposed resolution amending the Master Fee <br /> Schedule, attached as Attachment 1 to this agenda report. <br /> New Penalties and Penalties that Differ from County -wide Average <br /> Staff recommends adding to the Master Fee Schedule penalties for three hour parking, <br /> abandoned vehicles, parking in designated fire lanes, and maintaining vehicles with <br /> expired vehicle registrations, expired or missing license tabs, or missing license plates. <br /> Page 2 of 4 <br />