LOCAL SENIOR FIGHTS TICKET.

Byline: Bettie Rencoret Senior columnist

LANCASTER - Anyone who has ever received a parking ticket for failure to display a handicapped placard properly will certainly empathize with Olive Dunsmore.

Partially sighted and 84 years old, she received a $337 handicapped parking ticket on Jan. 20, and even though there were extenuating circumstances, personnel at Lancaster City Hall say they can't do anything about it.

Handicapped parking tickets are handled by a Tustin firm under contract to the city, so given the choice of presenting her case by mail or in front of a hearing officer, Dunsmore is now waiting for a May 3 hearing at City Hall.

``We understand her situation and wish we could help,'' said City Hall staffer Kristi Poindexter, who lent a sympathetic ear when Dunsmore called to see what could be done. Poindexter's supervisor, Cindy M. Prothro, assistant finance director for the city, said she talked to Dunsmore on the phone, too.

"Unfortunately, the statute is quite clear," Prothro said. "We did tell her about her options."

The problem is that Olive lost her husband, Estel, better known as Pete, in January after 62 years of marriage. Two days after Pete's funeral, after her own ailments worsened, her doctor told her to go immediately over to the Lancaster Community Hospital emergency room to have some tests run.

Olive doesn't drive now, but a friend from New Mexico had flown in for the funeral and decided to stay on for awhile to make sure Olive was OK. She drove Olive in Olive's car over to the hospital.

After she dropped Olive off at the emergency room entrance she went to park the car - in a handicapped parking space.

The New Mexico resident was unfamiliar with the regulations governing handicapped parking so she did a couple of things wrong.

She parked on the blue crosshatched loading and unloading lines instead of in the designated slot. She then displayed Pete's expired placard instead of Olive's own new one which was in the glove compartment.

Olive hadn't thought to get it out in the confusion surrounding her husband's last days. The driver left the car and went into the emergency room to make out all the necessary forms because Olive can't see well enough anymore to do things like that herself.

Hours later, when all the tests were done, the friend went to get the car and bring it around to retrieve Olive and drive her home.

There, on the windshield, was the citation. The combined fine for the two offenses amounted to $337.

At City Hall Poindexter and Prothro explained the high ticket tab.

"Handicapped fines are stiff on purpose," said Poindexter. "The city has been cracking down hard on offenders."

"That discourages some of the able-bodied who use the placards illegitimately," added Prothro. "If they know the fine is that steep they'll think twice before they do it."

When Olive contacted City Hall she was further nonplused to learn the ticket paperwork processing is farmed out to a contractor in Tustin.

While her friend was still here Olive put together a packet including a letter of explanation, a copy of Pete's death certificate, and a copy of her legal placard. She mailed it off to Tustin, hoping that would be the end of it.

"The reason it all has to go to Tustin," said Poindexter, "is that they have all the machinery and equipment needed to handle the volume of tickets we have. It would cost way too much taxpayer money to put in all the equipment, computers and staff it would take to do it ourselves."

She said there are no local firms who offer the service.

Prothro noted that the next step is a hearing before an officer of the court. The hearing officer, she said, is normally a former law enforcement officer familiar with the statutes and codes.

"The current hearing officer comes up here from Valencia, or someplace like that, and he is very fair," she said. "We can't second-guess him, of course, but when he hears all the facts of this case, he may dismiss it."

"The reason the officer comes up from another area is to avoid the chance of a conflict of interest," said Poindexter. "A local person might know the defendant." Given the choice of presenting her case by mail or in front of the hearing officer, Dunsmore chose to appear in person and she was put on the docket for May 3.

"If the officer doesn't rule in her favor at that time," said Prothro, "she still has one more option. It will cost her a $25 filing fee but she can request to be heard in regular traffic court by the local judge."

"I'm not well and I'm not guilty," said Olive. "I just want this whole thing over with."

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Photo: Lancaster senior Olive Dunsmore, 84, shown here with her late husband, Pete, is fighting a $337 handicapped-parking ticket issued on her car in a hospital emergency room's parking lot.