Dear Editor:

Last week I had a visitor come join my wife for lunch. She parked her car on the street around noon on a Tuesday, but we had forgotten to inform her that our street sweeping day was Tuesday. She was issued a citation which I insisted that we pay as we did not meet our obligation to tell her.

This has happened in the past and we took the citation to the Auto Club to pay it. They told us that they do not do that anymore. That seemed strange but we were close to City Hall and could pay it there. The City Hall cashier informed us that they do not accept payment for citations - we had to follow the instructions on the back. I went upstairs to talk to the city manager and got a deputy clerk instead. He informed me that we had to follow the instructions on the back and since they could not accept cash, maybe I could talk to the police department. The clerk there informed me that I had to follow the instructions on the back. His superior repeated that.

I finally looked at the back. Payment had to be sent to a P.O. Box in Newport Beach for CA Citation Processing Center. I was angry. A Downey resident cannot pay cash for a citation issued by a Downey officer for a parking violation in the city of Downey. It has been a long time, but I have never heard of any change. The currency I carry in my wallet says that those bills are legal tender for all debts public and private, and if you will not accept them, you cannot demand payment in any other form. In other words, if you will not accept cash, the debt is forgiven.

But what is really bothering me is that this appears to be a big secret that no one will talk about. What is this? I have never heard (or read in the Downey Patriot) anything about a new way to pay citations. Is this a development by Downey? Or is it a requirement by the California Legislature? Or is it a private development that Downey has entered into a contract with? In short, what is this? Were the fines increased to cover the added costs?

I would like to suggest that the Downey Patriot investigate this and publish your findings for the people of Downey.

This brings up another related subject – why are we sweeping our streets every week? Since the conversion of our trash pickup to containers, our streets are really very clean. Why have we not switched to alternate week sweeping? Our street (Stoakes Avenue) is clean most of the time. It could go maybe 3-4 weeks between cleaning. A friend suggested that the citations issued during sweeping are, in fact, a cash cow for the city. Her city does not issue citations during street sweeping.

I would like to see a report of the amount of trash that the city sweepers dump and the miles of streets that it took to collect that much. There should be such a report. How can I get a copy?

Gordon Wall
Downey