CITY RESPONSE WOODEN OVER SMASHED CAR.

Byline: Dennis McCarthy 

You know the old puzzler: If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

I've got another one with more urban roots. If a city tree falls and flattens a parked car on a Tarzana street while the owner is at work, does a city maintenance crew cleaning up the mess leave a note explaining what happened?

Or do the workers just leave and let the owner wonder if it was a meteor or a neighborhood gang that crushed her car roof, smashed her windshield and flattened her tires while she was at work?

Yeah, you got it. No note. No ``Sorry, it was the city's fault.'' No ``Give us a call.''

Nothing.

Here's the story. Stick around because it's got one of those beautiful bureaucratic, mumbo-jumbo twist endings we have all come to cherish and love so much living in L.A.

It's Thursday morning, July 2, and Jacki Thomas is ready to leave her apartment for work. She walks outside, looks down at her old, but semireliable, 1984 Pontiac Sunbird parked on the street and sees one of her tires is low.

Rather than chance it, Jacki hitches a ride to work with her fiance. She figures she'll get the tire fixed on the weekend when she has more free time. Bad call.

According to her neighbors, it was around 2:30 p.m. when they heard the tree snap, then the crash. They live on one of those lovely cul-de-sac streets where the parkway trees lean over the street to form an arbor.

Beautiful, really, unless one of those leaning trees falls over and flattens your car.

``One of my neighbors called 911, and a city crew came out within an hour to clear the tree off my car,'' Jacki said. ``They chopped and piled up the branches, took several pictures of my car and left.

``They did not leave a note or card on the vehicle or with my apartment manager. I had to find out from neighbors later what had happened. That's what upset me the most.''

Bob Kennedy, assistant director for Los Angeles' Bureau of Street Maintenance, said that no note was left probably because the work crews mistakenly thought the owner of the car had notified them or because they thought that a neighbor would explain the mess.

``If our crew felt there had been no communication with the owner of the vehicle, they would have left a card to notify them,'' Kennedy said.

Since it was already after 5 on the night before the July Fourth holiday, Jacki was looking at longer odds than a meteor hitting her car in finding someone in the city to give her some straight answers on what she should do.

Calling her insurance company was useless. Since the car was so old, she carried only liability insurance.

``I feel stupid because I know people are thinking I should have had full coverage, but it was an '84,'' Jacki said. ``Full coverage would have cost more than the car was worth.''

Jacki basically got the bureaucratic shuffle from everyone she called for help that night and decided to wait until Monday morning to get some answers on what she should do next.

``I felt certain over the holiday weekend that the city would acknowledge the problem Monday morning,'' Jacki said.

Ah, from the mouths of babes. It's so refreshing to run into people living in L.A. who still actually believe our city government will own up to responsibility for anything that goes wrong.

That only happens when something goes right. Then, all the politicians and city department heads are elbowing each other to get in the picture.

After a few days of calling around and basically getting nowhere, Jacki finally reached an employee in city maintenance who said he remembered taking the call of the tree falling on her car and dispatching the crew.

``But after checking with his supervisor, he said he was not allowed to disclose anything to me, to limit the city's liability,'' she said.

``I didn't push him because this was the most honest, straightforward answer I had received so far.''

Maybe in Mayberry RFD the city fathers would own up to their responsibility and cut one of their residents a check for flattening her car. But in L.A. you get in line until the city's army of lawyers can take a look at your case first.

Prudent, but awfully slow. That line could take anywhere from six months to a year, Jacki was told Thursday morning by the L.A. city attorney's claims department.

I got the same answer when I called. ``We've got a large backlog of claims cases and the response time in getting back to people is six months to a year,'' an employee said.

So, Jacki Thomas is looking at maybe an entire year before the city will own up to its responsibility and pay her blue-book value for her flattened car.

They've got the Polaroid pictures and the eyewitness testimony that it was indeed the city's fault, but the city's attorneys don't have the time to look at the file for six months to a year.

``I'm getting married in November and have been saving my money for the wedding. But now it looks like I'm going to have to spend it on another car, instead,'' Jacki said.

Just don't park this one under any city trees.

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Photo

PHOTO (color) Jacki Thomas' car was smashed by a city tree July 2 but Los Angeles officials say it could be months before a claim for damages is settled.

John Lazar/Special to the Daily News