Fines to rise as Allentown Parking Authority approves payment plans, meter study

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Parking tickets soon will be more expensive in Allentown after the parking authority met its end of a deal with city council.

The agency's board on Wednesday unanimously approved an internal payment plan system and a citywide parking-meter study.

Those approvals trigger a slew of parking-fine increases passed this month by Allentown City Council to take effect July 1.

Citations for almost all types of parking violations are cheaper in Allentown than any comparable city in the region — Bethlehem, Easton, Reading, Lancaster and York — with tickets set at $15 for many first-time offenses, according to statistics provided by the parking authority.

The city’s $100 double-parking fine is the only violation that costs more in Allentown than most other cities in the region.

The imminent increases bring Allentown’s parking fines “in line” with regional averages, Napoli said. And they could help with compliance, as many people now choose to pay tickets because they’re cheaper than parking meters, he said.

But, unsurprisingly, finances were the main impetus behind the parking authority’s push for higher fines.

The authority this year faced a $1 million budget hole, which officials attributed to a significant reduction in enforcement last spring.

As one of its few revenue sources, parking fines are “critical” for the authority but have not been changed in Allentown for more than two decades, board chairman Ted Zeller has said.

“We just needed to bring the parking fines up to 2024 standards that meet our 2024 expenses,” Napoli told LehighValleyNews.com on Wednesday.

Payment plan, meter study

The Allentown Parking Authority now has a year to follow through on its pledge to offer payment plans and study meters, but Napoli said “We’re hoping to get them done sooner.”

The board has been working much of the past year to implement an internal payment plan and meter study, but the money isn't there, Napoli said.

New revenues from higher fines will allow the parking authority to pay for those initiates, which should've been done long ago, he said.

“The payment plan and the meter study were both objectives that we wanted to do, and we couldn't because of our deficit,” Napoli told LehighValleyNews.com.

Implementing the payment plan could cost up to $50,000, a cost the authority couldn’t cover without new revenues, Napoli has said.

He credited former board member Yamilett Gomez for leading the push for payment plans since her appointment last April.

“This is something that was a long time in the making,” he said.

Revote rejected

Council on Wednesday night shot down Gerlach’s attempt to reconsider the bill they unanimously passed June 5.

Gerlach said she wanted to change her vote after reading a report from the Lehigh Valley Justice Institute that showed “tends to have greater impact on the poorer, more diverse regions of the city.”

“I did not look at the Justice Institute report prior to voting, and I should have. I think we all should have,” Gerlach said.

“The disproportionate effect that this increase — even with the payment plans — will have on working-class people … will disproportionately impact working-class people,” she said.

A potential one-year delay between fines increasing and the implementation of a payment plan also motivated Gerlach’s request Wednesday.

She also levied criticism against the Allentown Parking Authority board over Gomez’s departure this year.

“I just have concern that the community really doesn’t have a voice in the parking authority. You just don’t,” she said to residents in the room. “So I would like to change my vote.”

But Gerlach didn’t get that chance, as council voted 5-2 not to reconsider the fine increases.

Geralch’s motion to reconsider the bill after Allentown Parking Authority’s board agreed to council’s conditions is “reprehensible,” Councilman Daryl Hendricks said.

“This is nothing more than buyer’s remorse on your part, and I think it’s insulting to me as a member,” he said.