Thursday, March 13, 2014

The Anarchy of Bureauracy

I got that ticket, OK.  Now to set up the Defensive Driving Class.  OK.  If I take that class they take the ticket off my record and it is cheaper than the actual ticket itself.  Boy, that sounds great.   The trick is to get the class scheduled.

For the last two days, I have been on the phone to just about every state employee, except for the janitors, Mayor Kip Holden and Governor Bobby Jindal.  Although I would like to talk to both elected official  because I have some ideas as to how we can make this easier to understand.  It would probably save the state and city some money if the ticket gave you the actual phone number of the proper class sign up.  In fact, it would make this whole thing a lot easier.

First there is a distinction between the state, the sheriff's office and the city.  But the ticket (Sheriff's office since it was in an unincorporated area)  gives the number for the City office that handles the ticket.  Huh?

But they don't tell you that until you pay for the class with a credit card over the phone.  Then they say, oh, that is a sheriff ticket, you need to call them and see if this class will work.  Then they say, It probably won't.  Huh?

So I call a number she gave me.  Who listened patiently and told me she couldn't refund the money until it went into the system in a couple of weeks.  Huh?

I called another number one of them gave me who said I needed to call another number, who told me that I needed to wait to my court date before taking the class.  Or I  cold talk to a District Attorney to see if I could get in the class BEFORE my court date.  Huh?  Because once I hit the court date I will have to pay the ticket.  Huh?

Then we danced through 3 more numbers before I had someone tell me it takes three weeks to get the ticket into the system before I can even talk to them.  Huh?

The number 3 keeps surfacing........half the infamous 6s.  I think this system is more than a bit devlish.  And it is the only number that is sticking on my computer keyboard.  I wonder if there is a connection.






4 comments:

  1. Sounds like they want you to just give up and pay the ticket. What a run around! If that happened here somebody would call the local newspaper columnist that loves to write about this kind of crap that the government does to keep its people employed.

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  2. Patty has a idea there! You already have it all written out, just send a link to this blog post to whoever you can think of that might give a damn and might consider reporting it. You won't get out of the ticket any less but will give you some sort of satisfaction. There can be pleasure in revenge even if it's only in our minds.

    Maybe it all stems from that 3rd mud angel you took under your wing:-)

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  3. Dang girl! That sounds so frustrating! Hang in there. I tried to comment a few times in the past, but not sure how to do that, so I am commenting as anonymous.(and signing my name) :)

    Cheers!
    Tracy G

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  4. Whenever I read stories like this (or experience my own version), I shake my head and think, "your tax dollars at work." Too often, the way government works seems overly complex and inefficient ... or just plain wrong. Hang in there.

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