[img]2663|right|James Stouvenel||no_popup[/img]“Legally, you guys are not going to win,” a disheartened James Stouvenel of Palmdale vowed this morning when informed that the City Council unanimously dismissed the city attorney’s recommendation that blind passengers on busses be charged the same fare as other disabled persons.
“If L.A. Metro charges all disabled a fare, and Foothill and Gardena and Santa Barbara do, too, there is no way you guys (Culver City) are going to win,” the 40-year-old Antelope Valley activist for the disabled told the newspaper.
Committed to a pure form of fairness, Mr. Stouvenel said he has convinced numerous transportation agencies throughout California, who were letting the blind ride free, that they were in violation of fairness laws.
“I am a hundred percent confident I am going to win the Culver City case,” he said.
“I dare you guys. I dare you” to retain the policy affirmed last evening, that the blind ride free and other disabled passengers pay 35 cents.”
Mr. Stouvenel, who has cerebral palsy and is developmentally disabled, revealed a strategy intended to overcome this rare setback.
On an unannounced day, he plans to board a CulverCity Bus, show the driver his disability identification, and walk to his seat without reaching into his pocket or anywhere else to cover his 35-cent fare.
“Then I will take my ticket to a judge and he will decide,” Mr. Stouvenel said.
Speaking in stentorian tones, he said his statewide research of bus companies’ fare policies was prompted by unfair treatment he previously has received.
“I told Santa Barbara, and they changed their bus fare policy,” Mr. Stouvenel said. “I told Fresno. They changed their policy. I told the City of Gardena, and they changed their bus policy.”
(To be continued)
