Code Blue

Mathis Winkler

BALBOA PENINSULA -- When Noeline M. Frederiksen opened her mail Aug.

15, the notice of delinquency for a parking citation simply didn’t make

sense to her.

She’d never seen the original citation, which had been issued July 15.

Somehow it must have fallen off the car, she thought.

Receiving a citation in the first place didn’t make sense.

For the last four years, Frederiksen and her husband, Richard, have

purchased annual parking permits from the city. The permit entitles the

couple to park their car at meters on blue poles around the bay without

having to feed them with money.

The Frederiksens, who own a clothing store on the peninsula’s Main

Street and live above their business, have relied on the annual permits

since there is no place to park at their home.

“We don’t have a choice,” she said. “We are at the mercy of public

parking. We have to fight to get a blue meter.”

While she couldn’t remember the exact spot she’d parked her car that

day in July, Frederiksen doubted that she’d parked at a meter without a

blue pole, so she asked the city to review her case.

In late September, she received a letter stating that the citation had

been upheld and that a $36 fine was due Oct. 12.

“ACCORDING TO CITATION, METER NUMBER 1546 IS A SILVER POLE METER AND

YOUR PERMIT IS FOR ‘BLUE POLE METERS’ ONLY,” the letter screamed in

capitalized letters.

Responding to Frederiksen’s comment that she hadn’t received a

citation when her car was still parked in the same spot on July 16, the

letter continued: “NOT ALL ILLEGALLY PARKED VEHICLES GET CITATIONS AND

YOU MAY HAVE JUST GOTTEN LUCKY ON THE 16TH.”

Still convinced that there had been a mistake on the city’s part and

armed with the number of the pole in question, Frederiksen set out to the

A Street parking lot to check its color.

There is was. Meter No. 1546. And clearly blue.

Advised by the letter that she could ask for an administrative hearing

to look into the matter, Frederiksen took off time from her job as a

saleswoman in Irvine and went to City Hall to “see if there was anyone

who could validate my claim that meter 1546 is a ‘blue pole meter,’ ” she

said.

There, Frederiksen learned that she’d have to submit a written

statement of facts if she couldn’t make it to the hearing in person.

She wrote up a statement and attached it to a request for a hearing,

hoping that this would settle the matter once and for all.

After her Oct. 19 hearing, Frederiksen received another yet letter.

Based on “prima facie”-- or first impression -- evidence and her failure

to appear, the hearing board again upheld the citation and ordered her to

pay the fine by Nov. 10.

Finally, City Manager Homer Bludau heard about Frederiksen’s

difficulties to convince the city that she’d parked at a blue pole meter.

He agreed that there should be an easy way to resolve Frederiksen’s

dilemma.

“You’d think this should be a very black -- or blue -- and white

issue,” he said.

A few phone calls later, Bludau’s colleagues stopped relying on

outdated parking meter data at City Hall and went out to check the color

of the pole.

“She was right and we were wrong,” Bludau said, adding that the city

would send Frederiksen a letter of apology, rescinding the fine.

Bludau said city officials would also “dig into the effort” of

updating Newport Beach’s list of parking meters as a result of the

mishap.

And Frederiksen, whose husband once worked as a Costa Mesa police

officer, said she was glad the blue nightmare was finally over.

“We don’t go around breaking the law,” she said. “I felt as though I

was being treated like a lawbreaker and I’m not. I have a perfect driving

record.”

FYI

Annual parking permits for blue pole meters cost $100 and are valid at

15 parking lots throughout Newport Beach’s harbor area. For more

information, call (949) 644-3121.