San Francisco Blog

Assemblywoman Fiona Ma's bill to crack the financial whip when it comes to billing disabled parking placard outlaws is moving through the State Senate -- and local leaders are singing its praises.

And why not? Seriously, who could object to a plan to ding those who falsely pass themselves off as disabled and suck up San Francisco's maddeningly sparse parking all damn day long? Who will step forward and fight on behalf of the phony disabled greedy parking community? Whose constituency is that?

So, yes, fine these people -- they deserve it. But, as we wrote last month when Supervisor Eric Mar held a city inquiry into local placard fraud, increased enforcement efforts are often expensive, encumbered by delicate procedural necessities to stave off federal disability lawsuits, and ignore the fundamental problem -- it's just too damn easy for disingenuous people to "legally" obtain disability placards. In fact, that was the opinion of a recent Civil Grand Jury, which tackled this exact subject:

State law authorizes many and various health care practitioners - from audiologists all the way through to some categories of social workers -- to certify someone as eligible for a blue placard. This very multiplicity of types of certifiers also makes it easier for anyone to shop around for a practitioner who will quickly sign one's application for a blue placard. Further, since certification does not automatically require an actual full-scale exam by the practitioner, the application can be completed by office staff -- figuratively rubber-stamping the application. There is little incentive for practitioners to say no, but considerable incentive to agree to the certification. Practitioners might worry that their failure to sign the authorization may result in the loss of their patient to another practitioner.

Ma's bill may spook small-time cheats into not borrowing Grandma's placard or printing up a homemade version at home -- but, to employ the readiest metaphor, the horses have already left the barn, and this is just a matter of attempting to chase them down. The real work of making sure undeserving folks aren't handed placards they can use legitimately -- or pass to others to use fraudulently -- isn't addressed here.

So, again, fine, fine, fine these disingenuous bastards. And if someone has forged a placard on his home printer -- couldn't that be an even more serious crime? But until the state comes up with a stricter set of requirements for obtaining a placard that requires a doctor to seriously analyze patients instead of simply rubber-stamping their placard requests, don't expect any serious progress.