Tomorrow a small bill, that slipped out of Council’s Streets and Services committee with barely any notice, will get its first reading. Titled “Towing And Immobilizing Of Parked Or Abandoned Vehicles,” few knew what Bill 080406 was about until the people benefiting showed up to testify on its behalf:

From KYW1060:

The Parking Authority is promising smoother rush hours in Center City, if it gets final City Council approval to expand its towing operation.

The Authority currently can tow and impound a car only in an area that is bounded by Vine Street on the north and Spruce Street on the south. A council committee has now given a preliminary okay to expanding that border north to Spring Garden, south to Bainbridge, and also on Broad Street itself all the way up to Hunting Park Avenue.

Parking Authority Executive Director Vince Fennerty says to goal is to get illegally parked cars out of the way in rush hour . . . .

Fennerty says this will particularly help around the I-95 Vine Street ramps.

The Parking Authority?

This is the first time (that I’m aware of) that Council has had a crack at the Parking Authority since parents launched a campaign against them last fall. Now is not the time to expand the Parking Authority’s powers. If anything, City Council should restrict the PPA’s activities until it first proves it is a more responsible steward of its money and activities. It’s also an important opportunity to squeeze that agency about why it isn’t giving more to the schools.

It's hard to imagine that the Parking Authority could get any lower but they sure know how to bottom out. In today’s Inquirer story, the Parking Authority blames a decline in ticketing as a major reason why they can't meet their financial obligations to the City and the School District. Never mind the doubling up of a padded payroll; more than $46 million in largely unaudited cash reserves; unconscionable perks like fat pensions checks, free cars/gas; six figure salaries including an Exec. Dir. who makes more than the governor and a board chair who earns $75,000 a year for showing up once a month. Nah none of that could have anything to do with their failure to meet their goals.

Now, they blame the police. Had enough?

Come on down to the Parking Authority Board meeting this morning where:

Parents United for Public Education, the Philadelphia Home & School Council, Germantown Clergy Initiative, JUNTOS, Philadelphia Right to Ed Task Force and the Association of Philadelphia School Librarians name --

The Philadelphia Parking Authority

the

2007 Inductee into the Grinch Brotherhood

Yesterday, in a sneak move, the PA Senate re-authorized the Philadelphia Parking Authority’s red light cameras . The bill stripped away an earlier effort by the House Appropriations Committee to designate all new revenue to the public schools and provide minimal fiscal oversight to the Parking Authority. This new bill which passed unanimously in the Senate and the House (with the opposition of about 50+ representatives in the House), now turns over all money to PennDOT and has no reference to the need for public oversight on the PPA.

Symbolically, though, it provides yet more light on the struggles and hurdles we face to bring any new revenue to the public schools, make any reforms in the patronage heavy PPA, and bring to light the backdoor deals cut by Dwight Evans (whom it was recently reported has a brother at the Parking Authority) and Republican legislators who are deeply vested in the agency.

It’s also a demonstration of the failure of state takeovers: the state took over the public schools and the Parking Authority in 2001, the results of which have both lost public trust and remain largely out of the realm of public oversight, responsibility and accountability.

For more information and supporting action on the Parking Authority campaign, please contact parentsunitedphila@gmail.com > Parents United for Public Education.

The Parking Authority Grinch: A Fable
(with apologies to Dr. Seuss)

Every Who
Down in Who-ville
Liked decent schools a lot . . .

But the PPA,
Which wanted a fleet of SUVs for itself,
Did NOT!

The PPA hated public scrutiny! The whole budget perusin’!
Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
It could be that its salaries and pensions had taken a good bite.
It could be, perhaps, that its payroll was outta sight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that its sense of shame was two sizes too small.

Click to download the first episode of

The Legislator and the Agitator. Rep. Payton and I were talking recently about the lack of podcasts about Pennsylvania politics. We're both pretty involved in it in our own way, so we had the idea of starting our own podcast. The intent is to give the inside and the outside perspective of two people working on the same political side. This is our first episode. In the future, we'll go more into each other's background and also try to spend more time talking about how we do what we do.

This first podcast is pretty topical, though. Show notes below. It's a little under an hour, but divided into four main segments, of about 15 minutes each. In other words, we have your next four walks to/from work covered. Fire up that Ipod, Pennsylvania!

Hit "Click More" to see the Show Notes!

On September 18, the Metro reported that the Philadelphia Parking Authority had sold its property at 20th & Sansom Streets for approximately $36.7 million.

If you recall, the Parking Authority has made a commitment to deliver $20 million to the Philadelphia public schools over a five year period since 2005. Their contribution to date?

$0.00

In light of the sale, parents are calling on the authority to use proceeds from the sale to fulfill its commitment to the public schools. They're asking that the Parking Authority not just allot funds for this year but to make up for the past three years when it has not contributed any money to the public schools. You can read a press release and their letter to the Parking Authority here.

But the larger question remains, parents can holler all they want, but how do we actually squeeze money out of the Parking Authority. Any thoughts?