2/3/15 ROC at LA TRADE TECH COLLEGE..i was disappointed with the service at this community college "referee"...this guy calls himself "roc" (no name tag, no last name given)...arrived on a Harley Davidson...kind of macho persona (macho macho man, reminds me of village people song)...; and acted as if he was seriously looking over my papers, then said "you need to spend at least $650 before we can grant a 2-year smog waiver..." blah blah blah..; my mechanic said this is a "loose" guideline as long as you show good faith in trying to repair it... ; I could tell that the call-center had prompted him that I might not have spent $650 yet..because I had confided such to the call-taker the previous day (who makes the appointments)..; but he took my papers into the office anyways and prepared some documents for me to sign (why?! ) ...I thought he was going to grant it anyways (as my mechanic had suggested)...but instead he came back out, asked me to sign the papers...and then repeated you need to spend more than $650...; I notice he had mis-spelled my name (both first & last , despite it being spelled correctly on all the paper work he was looking at)...; he told me to ask his partner who was also a referee about it? I turned to the African-American (ron?) and asked him...and he went into a dramatic act...kind of scrunching up his nose as if it was an indignant thought to not obey "the law" as written. I tried to reason with him momentarily about the "spirit of the law..." but realized right away that it was pointless...this guy was going for an Oscar award with his "it's the law" self-righteousness. I asked Roc if he had ever submitted papers in which $650 was not spent and he refused to answer. I sensed discrimination...maybe race-based (ie let's show this "white boy" who is boss around here...this is downtown LA...speaks for itself)...; the whole thing was a fiasco...reminded me of a kangaroo court...; my mechanic was used to working with the referee in Huntington beach...but I couldn't get in there on the last-minute basis...that's another reason I suspected racism. I asked Roc who was his boss...; he gave me a name (steve lucas) and a 760 area code number which I later called several times..and nobody answered..left a voice mail...and never got a return call;...later I talked again to the call -center in the sacramento area...and exchanged some words with a few of the people there...and told them I was still waiting to hear from steve lucas.etc etc...; shortly after this exchange I got a call from steve lucas who was very overbearing...and started literally yelling at me over the phone for a minute...clearly trying to intimidate and talk-me-down...so I literally held the phone away from my ear for about 60 seconds until I couldn't hear the buzz ...and finally said "Can I talk now?" ...and said, "Who is your boss and phone #?" he answered. I said "BYE" and clicked. a second later my phone rang from him, but he hung up. I realized that this might be a bit of a scam by the community colleges and/or referees; or maybe just the few I had dealth with so far. I will write a few letters to key people, and go from there.
Oh, before I left the referee, I told Roc that he had misspelled my name...and he laughed and said "That's the least of your problems..." ; I was concerned about if this was going to go on the record if the mis-spelling was intentional so that they could try to be evasive in terms of accountability. Nonetheless, he didn't offer to re-do it properly.
