I live in westwood, calif…This has to be ground zero for meter maids in LA. Do we residents(voters)have any control over these smug jerks?
Sure. Don’t park illegally.
How about going around your town putting quarters in all the meters that are expired. If that’s legal, and if you have the extra change, it would put the meter maids out of business rather quickly!
How quaint the difference in a phrase can be - on the Gold Coast here we have “meter maids”. Ours are generally dressed in gold bikinis and they put coins in meters where cars from interstate are parked so the tourists don’t get parking fines (from memory, they were originally employed by the council to do this).
There was one locally. the company that would collect the cars if you parked too long, liked specific cars. They would, or it appears to be since they swept this whole thing under the rug & got rid of her, that they would ask her to ticket specific cars that they liked. Like old ones, like mine. Would ticket them again & again then they she could make an order to have them come get the car & they would have a car they wanted & could sell.
Eventually they gave the meter maid two cars for free that she really wanted herself & thats when she got caught. tsk.
Um, what are you talking about?
Flymaster:
I don’t know where you live, but here in NYC, that’s not always the answer. I’ve gotten tons of tickets while legally parked, and successfully fought them…but either I’m more knowledgeable about parking law than they are, or they get paid per ticket issued and don’t care if I get off later.
It’s a nuisance, and even though I don’t have to pay the fines, it still costs me money to get the pictures developed that prove the creeps wrong.
You might not be so far off. From some things I’ve ready (possibly UL, YMMV), in order to fill quotas and such, ‘meter maids’ will write tickets but write your license plate number wrong so you’ll have no trouble getting off in court. Um, you know what I mean…
“Um, what are you talking about?”
Catch the meter maid doing something illegal & you can do something about her. That’s what the OP is…& that’s what they did here.
My experience has been that meter maids, by and large, are just doing their jobs. Some of them get a sadistic thrill out of putting tickets on border line infractions but I’ve been able to talk my way out of a ticket or two even after they had moved off down the road.
The local police department usually is responsible for traffic enforcement so you could talk to them about their policies on ticketing… how strictly parking laws are interpreted… but these things generate money for the city so they’re not about to loosen the rules just because people ask them to (if it were only so).
I know of one case where the City Council reprimanded (sp?) the police for being overzealous in their ticketing practices, but that was a rare case and the police chief quit in protest… sometimes leaving a note explaining why you had to park illegally (my wife is having a baby)helps.
I, uh, don’t suppose you have a cite for that?
Okay,
It sounds like you ahve had a few tickets handed out to you… I wont say any more on taht matter,
BUT,
The answer to your question is, infact, maybe…
YES: If you can possbly research your rights, and send in a complaint to your local Authority.
NO: They would probably just chuck it out with the trash anyway…
Sorry for my slanted opinion of the government…
As an ex-californian I can relate to what you are talking about… although i have not lived there any time after i was the age of 12…
Sorry I was no help… 
Thanks,
Russell
well I know this is a little off topic but I have a story
this didn’t happen to me, but I was there and it’s easier to tell it in the first person.
So there I am parked in Westwood across the street from UCLA, I live in something called the Hilgard houses, it’s a sorority house the school converted into dorms, anyway I’m parked in front of my “house” on the curb, well this big pickup pulls up and paints the cub red while I’m parked there and then proceeds to give me a ticket for parking in a red zone, I look out the window and see him writing the ticket. So I run downstairs and say “What the Fuck” (That’s a direct quote) the officer says “There’s nothing I can do about your problem take it up with the judge” then he hands me the ticket and drives off. Needless to say I didn’t have to pay the fine. But what a hassel
Also, each meterperson has a limit to how many tickets they can drop. They must collect a certain amount of tickets but they can also drop some. The meterperson above dropped too many of them, which came to the attention of her supervisor.
Also, meterpersons are not cops. At least in our city on the meterperson application it said you don’t have to be one.