If you park at a broken parking meter in Los Angeles, you’re going to pay a lot more than you bargained for. 

Although California state law says it’s unjust, the Los Angeles City Council voted 12-1 to keep ticketing drivers who park at broken meters. This flies in the face of the state law, which says there have to be notices on meters if they are broken in order for the city to issue a ticket.

The only opponent to the Council’s decree was Jan Perry, who is running for mayor.

In the past, Los Angeles allowed free parking at broken meters, and 10% of the meters were broken. This lasted until 2010, when the law in Los Angeles was changed. Vandalism was a problem, but that diminished when 40,000 new meters were put into use. Those meters had red stickers that warned of the new regulations about parking at broken meters as well as systems inside them that inform transportation employees if they are broken.