Parking violations.

Assembly Members Bryan and Celeste Rodriguez frame a measure that treats parking violations less as a pure penalty and more as a pathway to relief, authorizing the issuing agency to reduce or waive penalties when a contestant demonstrates an inability to pay or other extenuating circumstances, including homelessness. The measure also allows installment or deferred payments and, with governing-board approval, the possibility of performing community service in lieu of payment. At its core, the proposal expands the administrative review and hearing framework to incorporate flexible relief options while preserving due-process safeguards.

The bill preserves the existing hearing structure but broadens the circumstances under which relief can be granted. Examiners and issuing agencies may, at any point during the administrative process, grant installment plans, deferment, or reductions or waivers based on evidence of inability to pay or other extenuating factors, with a written explanation of denial when relief is not granted. The independence and qualifications framework for examiners remains, including training requirements and the prohibition on examiner ties to enforcement or processing functions, ensuring a fair, independent review.

A central feature is the creation of a formal indigent-payment plan for penalties up to five hundred dollars, with installments capped at twenty-five dollars per month and a maximum payoff period of twenty-four months. Indigents enrolling in the plan have late fees and related penalties waived, with the option to add the plan’s processing fee to the total at the participant’s discretion; the processing-fee cap is five dollars for indigents and up to twenty-five dollars for non-indigent participants. Notices must include information about the plan and a publicly accessible web page with details on eligibility, documentation, and the indigence-determination process, which may rely on income-proof or receipt of public benefits. The bill also requires a one-time forty-five-day extension for those who fall behind and a one-time partial relief option if the participant pays a small late fee. In higher education, the CSU and community college districts must adopt a campus-wide multi-citation payment plan with protections during the plan, posting requirements on campus websites, and a fallback path to the plan if a district-wide policy is not implemented.

Beyond individual relief, the measure retains and refines enforcement tools with defined thresholds: more than four hundred dollars in unpaid penalties can be filed as a civil-judgment action after notice and a waiting period, with standard court-collection mechanisms; fraud provisions empower reversal of relief if indigent status is found to be willfully fraudulent. The proposal emphasizes accessibility and transparency, requiring clearer notice and online information about relief options and program eligibility, while maintaining a structured timeline for initial review, the administrative hearing, and potential subsequent actions. Taken together, the measure alters how penalties are collected and when relief may be granted, situating parking-violation enforcement within a framework that foregrounds documented need and formalized avenues for debt relief and campus-based programs, alongside existing enforcement tools.