ALLENTOWN, Pa. - The embattled Allentown Parking Authority is about to be examined under a microscope.
Allentown City Council unanimously voted on Wednesday night to approve Mayor Matt Tuerk’s ordinance to appropriate $10,000 for an analysis of the parking authority. The money would come from the city’s 2023 unappropriated fund.
- Allentown City Council approved Mayor Matt Tuerk's request for $10,000 to fund a study of the parking authority
- Residents have complained of unfair practices of ticketing vehicles and targeting certain citizens
- Tuerk said the study would begin immediately
The mayor’s decision to hire an independent consultant to provide the city with a legal and policy analysis of the parking authority comes in response to legions of residents who have become angered and frustrated over what they consider overbearing and predatory practices in issuing parking tickets and citations.
In recent months, the parking authority meetings have become a gathering of seething residents seeking an explanation for the number of tickets being issued 24/7 by authority patrols.
After the vote, Tuerk thanked the council for choosing to move forward with his request for a study, which, he said, would begin immediately.
“We’re going to do an analysis and come to a conclusion. We’ll be very public with this."Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk
“A person today hand-delivered a letter to me in my office, thanking the city for helping with this and how important this is,” Tuerk said. “I appreciate the work the parking authority is doing to improve things. But I want the public to understand this is not an indictment of the parking authority (workers) just doing their jobs on the street.
“We’re going to do an analysis and come to a conclusion. We’ll be very public with this, and we’re relying in part on our council members.”
In his ordinance to city council, Tuerk cited a lack of accountability and transparency by the parking authority as a major reason for wanting a study. The ordinance accused the parking authority of provoking anger by disregarding the interests of the people, of being driven by a desire to generate revenue, and of having "unchecked power."
Tuerk said he first started considering an independent study of the authority around Christmastime.
Allentown created the parking authority 40 years ago, and it operates independently without direct oversight by the city.
Late in 2018, the parking authority assumed from the police the sole responsibility of issuing parking tickets and citations. The authority assigns 33 employees to ticket violators 24/7, in eight-hour shifts of 11 employees each.
Many of the same residents who have attended parking authority meetings with complaints about being unfairly ticketed attended the city council meeting and voiced similar concerns. Among the sentiments were that the parking ordinances are unfair and need to be amended.
At those meetings and before the city council on Wednesday, residents expressed feelings ranging from concern to anger regarding what they interpret as having received parking tickets without just cause.
Greenberg Lemus owns La Cocina Del Abuelo Mexican restaurant on 621 Hamilton St., and will celebrate his first anniversary on April 1.
Lemus told the council he believes he has been repeatedly and unfairly ticketed while parked outside his establishment. He presented to the council a stack of unpaid tickets totaling about $5,000, incurred in just the past six months.
“Something has to be done,” Lemus said. “I don’t have lots of money. This is going to put me out of business.”
Victor Martinez, owner and CEO of La Mega Radio, urged the council to support the mayor’s proposal to find out what’s happening with the parking authority and for it to be held accountable.
“Maybe the city should take it over,” said Martinez, who is running for office as a Lehigh County commissioner. “It’s not working, and I haven’t heard any plan to fix it other than we’ll look at it. Let’s find a way to find a solution.”
Betty Cauler, of West Allentown, addressed the council. In the past, she has called for the dissolution of the parking authority. She says she has repeatedly been unfairly ticketed for parking near the garage of her home.
Cauler apprised the council of a program — a parking pad — the city of Reading has that helps remedy the parking situation there that she believes could be part of the remedy in Allentown.
A parking pad, unlike a garage, is an open area of land that’s paved or has another appropriate surface to park cars for residents of row homes with rear alley access to install pads in their backyards.
At a parking authority meeting in February, several residents told the board they feel as though they are being targeted since they’ve received multiple tickets for a single offense.
One incident, 45 tickets
One resident, Melissa Rogers, of Pennsylvania Street, said she has incurred more than 45 tickets since 2022 stemming from one incident when her car parked at the curb in front of her home was ticketed for an expired inspection sticker.
Rogers complained to the parking authority board last month that when she said she couldn’t afford to pay the fine immediately, as she was waiting for a paycheck to arrive, she was immediately fined $70 and was issued yet another ticket. Her car was subsequently impounded even though she received an agreement with a district judge to work out a payment plan. Despite that assurance, Rogers said, her car was impounded last month and she was issued 45 more tickets for failure to pay the original ticket.
The parking authority requires full payment for a parking ticket, in accordance with the city ordinance. District judges have the authority to place an offender on a payment plan, but the parking authority has no jurisdiction to abide by that order.
Following the vote on Wednesday, council Vice President Cynthia Mota described the study as “a great thing.”
“The community has been asking for this, so it’s obvious people have a lot of issues,” Mota said. “I think a study needs to be done. I’m glad everybody voted yes. Let’s see what the study says. I cannot wait.”
Other business
Among other businesses at Wednesday’s council meeting, an amendment was approved to eliminate monetary penalties for residents who care for feral, or community, cats outside their home.
Hal Warner, CEO of the Lehigh Valley Humane Society, urged the amending of the existing ordinance. Warner said his organization has been instrumental in controlling the community cat population in Allentown. For the past three years, the humane society has spayed and neutered 30 cats per week free of charge.
At the Public Safety committee meeting, approval was made to amend the 2023 General Fund Budget to provide a supplemental appropriation of $10,000 from the state office of the State Fire Commissioner Grant to the Allentown EMS Department to upgrade equipment for paramedics and the bomb squad.
The Parks and Recreation committee approved appropriation of $398,600 into a new capital fund account. The money was awarded as a DCNR Grant for Phase 2 construction of the Jordan Skatepark.
Approval was given for a formal application to the State Office of the Budget for a grant of $500,000 to support the renovation of the Scottish Rite Cathedral; for $6,500,000 to support the renovation and expansion of Lehigh Valley Health Network's 17th Street facilities; and $1 million to support the revitalization of the Phoebe Homes Inc. Allentown campus.
Other business included the amending of the budget to appropriate $50,000 from the US Conference of Mayors and the American Beverage Foundation for a Healthy America grant to the mayor’s office Civic Innovations Fund for a hybrid program in Allentown targeted toward childhood obesity prevention.
