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Council OKs online appeals of parking tickets

TIRED OF TAKING off from work to appeal a parking ticket? Those days of running to the Bureau of Administrative Adjudication (BAA) will soon be over.

TIRED OF TAKING off from work to appeal a parking ticket?

Those days of running to the Bureau of Administrative Adjudication (BAA) will soon be over.

City Council yesterday unanimously approved a bill sponsored by Councilman Bill Green that would let people use the Internet, email, mail or fax to contest tickets issued by the Philadelphia Parking Authority. Currently, those who want to challenge a ticket must show up for a hearing at the Bureau of Administrative Adjudication.

Mayor Nutter is expected to sign the bill into law. BAA director Jerry Connors said that portions of the proposal will be phased in starting in the fall and additional staffers will be needed.

Councilman Mark Squilla introduced a bill that would tack on a $4 fee on parking tickets for the maintenance of recreation facilities and for operating costs of the Philadelphia Parking Authority Taxicab and Limousine Division. The fee could yield $4 million a year.

"If you were wrongly parked or parked illegally… I still think an extra $4 surcharge on a ticket would go a long way to help the city not to hurt it," Squilla said.

The Law Department said in a memo that the city is not authorized to direct the money to city services and that any money generated would have to go to the school district. But PPA said in a memo that because it's a surcharge the money would not have to go to schools.

In other news: Council president Darrell Clarke introduced bills that would provide the district with an extra $85 million either through an increase in business or real-estate taxes even if Nutter's plan to switch to a new market-value-based property-tax system is altered by Council. Nutter's plan includes extra money for the schools.

Councilman Jim Kenney introduced a bill that would give the Office of the Inspector General jurisdiction over delinquent-tax bills in which fraud or tax evasion is suspected. Such action currently falls under the Department of Revenue, but Kenney is not satisfied with its efforts.