It depends on how ruthless the city is about parking enforcement. AFAIK Some places have laws against parking at broken meters. Then again some places say it's legal.

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/parking-tickets-bro...

Edit: The university I went to gave me parking tickets twice. Once because I forgot to hang my permit and once .. I have no idea why, but they ticketed everyone in the lot lol. Both times when I stopped by the office they immediately dropped them. Sometimes parking enforcement can be downright reasonable, so I wouldn't necessarily assume the worst of them.