Underground Safety Board finds City of Los Angeles violated locate-response rules; orders training and fines

The California Underground Safety Board on April 13 found that two City of Los Angeles departments failed to comply with statutory requirements to respond to 811 locate requests and submit electronic positive responses (EPRs) before the legal excavation start dates.

Staff investigator Miss Bonner told the board that data alerts created tickets for two contractors and that the City of Los Angeles Street Lighting Bureau and the Department of Transportation admitted they did not mark or provide required EPRs by the legal start times, citing resource constraints.

The board voted that the respondent violated Government Code provisions related to failure to respond to regional notification center locate requests and failure to post EPRs. For the group of five tickets in the street-lighting matter the board recommended mandatory completion of the board’s education course and a financial penalty of $2,000 per violation, a total penalty recommendation of $20,000; the motion carried with one board member recording a dissent on the penalty vote. In the Department of Transportation case the board recommended the education course and a $1,000-per-violation penalty (total $2,000), which the board adopted by roll call.

Public comment before the enforcement hearings emphasized operational impacts and alleged systemic staffing shortfalls. Todd Bloemstein of the Southern California Contractors Association said the association was "deeply dismayed" to find the city lacked staff and that, in some cases, the city took "60 to 90 days" to respond to ticket requests, calling the failures serious and urging enforcement or legislative remedies.

Board members debated context and proportionality during sentencing: several members supported mandatory education in addition to fines, while others urged consideration of emergency response workloads (including recent wildfire recovery) when setting penalties. Member Johnson expressed concern about the size of the penalties given staffing explanations; Member Storm moved the principal motions finding violations and recommending sanctions.

The decisions require specified corrective actions: completion of the board’s education course by the respondent and payment of the adopted financial penalties. The board’s staff will issue written decisions and notices of those determinations and will continue post-decision monitoring as part of the board’s enforcement program.

The board adjourned the enforcement items and proceeded with the remainder of its agenda; the next board meeting is scheduled for July.