It pays to play dumb.
The City of Santa Monica is set to dismiss or refund penalties for more than 3000 residents and visitors who received tickets earlier this month — if they plead ignorance.
At its meeting last night, the Santa Monica City Council approved a forgiveness program for citations earned in street sweeping zones between August 30 and September 3.
“Only citations for street sweeping will be forgiven through a process active now through October 5, 2021,” a city press release confirmed today. “Those who may have already paid the citation are eligible and will be issued a refund.”
But, of course, there is a catch.
To get off the $73 hook, recipients of the citations must pinky swear that they had absolutely no knowledge of the sweeping schedule change (which has been limited to one time per month since 2020) and explain how they could have possibly missed the city’s massive community outreach campaign.
Acceptable excuses include:
“I did not access social media”
“I did not see notices in the newspaper.”
“My wife was supposed to tell me stuff like this.”
Ok, that one might not work…
Still, the City did “tons of outreach,” including text messages, emails and even flyers on car windshields, according to SMPD spokesperson, Lt. Rudy Flores.
Appeals can be filed here.
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