In San Bruno, criminal charges were filed against a 24-year-old woman — allegedly a part of the vocal anti-parking meter campaign in the city — who vandalized multiple meters and caused more than $12,000 of damage, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
The woman, South San Francisco resident Stephanie Chan, works in downtown San Bruno, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said. Chan is being charged with four counts of felony vandalism and pleaded not guilty.
She was allegedly caught on license plate readers and surveillance cameras intentionally vandalizing the meters at night throughout August — using spray paint and black tape to render them unusable, smashing the meters’ solar panels and blocking meter payment holes with caulking and flex glue.
Residents and business owners have expressed anger and dissent around the meters’ installation and pricing, as well as their continued dysfunction — which was discovered to be due to faulty programming where kiosks would never go into sleep mode, completely draining the batteries.
Other issues aside from the vandalism included solar panels facing the wrong direction, kiosks being installed in the wrong places and being originally covered from the sun, rendering the solar panels useless.
The vandalization — which occurred along the 400 block of San Mateo Avenue, City Manager Alex McIntyre said — created a large problem for the city and parking enforcement as they waited for the meters to be fixed. McIntyre said that frustration with the metered parking must be expressed in lawful ways.
“A lot of people are frustrated with a lot of laws in the city. It doesn’t give them a right to try and thwart them,” he said.
Councilmember Marty Medina has been an active mediator between frustrated residents and the City Council. He said that vandalization of the meters just complicates parking for those using downtown, and the charges pressed against the alleged vandal are unavoidable.
“When somebody goes to that effort and vandalizes something there is a consequence,” he said.
At the same time, Medina said it’s important that the City Council quickly moves to address remaining issues with the parking meters and suggested solutions, like at its last meeting in December, the City Council decided that it would not be necessary to put a subcommittee in place to work on the issues it had decided staff look into — including potential Sunday exemptions, removal of certain paid parking requirements on El Camino Real and seeking an alternative mobile pay application.
“I’m glad that this will be resolved — that somebody that did that is going to end up paying the consequence. That doesn’t solve the problem, though,” Medina said. “The council needs to take action in January.”
The court’s action against Chan will take place April 7 for a pretrial hearing, Wagstaffe said.
For those who aren’t getting accustomed to San Bruno’s new paid parking, McIntyre asked them to contact the city, rather than reaching for the spray paint.
“If they have frustrations, instead of taking it out on the meters,” he said, “just ask us.”
(1) comment
Hey Marty Medina & Alex McIntyre, is there a consequence for shoplifting, illegal drug use, illegal immigration, illegal pop up food kiosks, pooping or urinating on city streets etc? How about a consequence for the San Bruno inept government that allowed the installation of faulty meters and solar panels that were pointed the incorrect direction without providing proper oversight? Perhaps you both should look at yourselves in the mirrors and stop with the selective law enforcement and prosecution until you clean your own runny noses.
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