Who Are These Guys?

Apparently the need for extra revenue to fund our fair city's operations has gotten the juices flowing in our local bureaucracy. Two stories are in today's U-T that while unrelated, have revenue as the root motive for actions by city employees.

First, it has apparently taken the city a dozen years to notice that the state of California imposes a surcharge on every parking ticket issued by the city and collects the revenue for Sacramento. Unfortunately, this means that every ticket handed out by our local gendarmes resulted in local taxpayers paying for the surcharge, not the violator. The City Council voted to end the practice and pass the surcharge on to violators, ending the $3.8 million annual loss. Carl DeMaio was the lone dissenting vote. I like Carl, but think he is mistaken this time. No the state shouldn't be tacking on a surcharge, but the city shouldn't pick up the tab on behalf of the violators.

Second, investigators for the Metropolitan Transit System have been conducting investigations in Tijuana about fare card counterfeiting and card re-use to prevent loss of revenue to the MTS. Unfortunately, they apparently just moseyed on down, south of the border, without so much as a "by your leave" or any other notifications required by international treaty or courtesy. Thankfully, no one mistook them for DEA agents and they all came home alive. Image at left is "A ticket sale caught on camera by an MTS investigator sent to Mexico."

More nice reporting from the U-T watchdog.