Three city employees were fired and another three resigned or retired after an investigation by the Inspector General, which found that parking-violation hearing examiners were fixing parking tickets for friends and family members.
Inspector General Amy L. Kurland is now calling for an overhaul in the parking ticket appeals process administered by the Bureau of Administrative Adjudication (BAA). The BAA is the city agency that handles appeals to parking tickets issued by the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PAA), a state agency.
“While it is a sad day whenever government workers have been found doing wrong, Amy’s joint investigation of the BAA and the PPA shows that government watchdogs are working,” said Mayor Michael A. Nutter in a press release.
Kurland reported that former finance deputy director Clorise Wynn “provided extremely poor oversight to hearing examiners,” and failed to implement a policy prohibiting ticket-fixing for PPA and BAA friends and family members.
Wynn herself dismissed hundreds of parking tickets for friends and 35 for her daughter, according to Kurland. Wynn resigned before the report was released.
BAA supervisor Joanna Schofield and PPA employee Robin Bass both retired before Kurland’s report could get them fired as well. The report implicated them both.
Hearing examiners Yvette Garcia and Denean Hardy were also fired after Kurland’s recommendation. Reginald Bass-Reid, another PPA employee, was fired after it was discovered that he had dozens of tickets improperly dismissed by BAA hearing examiners, reports Kurland.
“Inspector General Kurland’s report and our full cooperation with her investigation should send a strong message to all PPA employees that we will not tolerate this type of behavior,” said PPA Executive Director Vincent J. Fenerty Jr.
The report recommends training for BAA hearing examiners who improperly dismissed tickets because of poor supervision. It also recommends that the BAA develop clear policies and procedures for hearing examiners.
