Parking Authority alters board meeting amid sexual harassment scandal
The Philadelphia Parking Authority board has postponed its regularly scheduled meeting amid a sexual harassment scandal involving the agency's executive director.
The Philadelphia Parking Authority board has postponed its regularly scheduled meeting amid a sexual harassment scandal involving the agency's executive director.
The board - or a slimmed-down version - will still hear public comments at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday on the fifth floor of 701 Market St. but won't assemble to vote on its agenda until Thursday. There will be public comments taken Thursday as well, according to a Parking Authority spokesman.
The meeting change, due to lack of a quorum, comes amid pressure on the agency following revelations that Executive Director Vincent J. Fenerty Jr. had sexually harassed a coworker.
Fenerty, who was required to pay for the $30,000 internal investigation, kept his $230,000-a-year job but was stripped of certain managerial authority and forbidden from going on overnight trips with coworkers without permission from the board.
On Thursday, City Councilman Al Taubenberger, who is also a member of the Parking Authority board, defended the decision to keep Fenerty on the job. He said Fenerty would have been fired if the board was aware of any other similar allegations against him.
Taubenberger described the case as an isolated incident. He said that on a work trip Fenerty kissed the woman good night, then later asked if she would attend the next trip out of town.
In recent days, Mayor Kenney, Gov. Wolf, the local chapter of the National Organization for Women and the city's commission on women have sharply criticized the board's handling of the situation.
Republican leaders have been huddling over the last several days to discuss whether Fenerty can keep his job and, if not, who will replace him, according to sources familiar with the discussions. One such meeting took place Friday in Harrisburg. Fenerty, the sources said, is intent on staying in his post. The authority is controlled by Republicans.
Four members of the six-member board must be present for a quorum. Taubenberger is on a trade mission to Germany. Commissioner Al Schmidt said Monday he has to miss the meeting for voter registration responsibilities. Tuesday is National Voter Registration Day. A third board member is out of town on business, said Martin O'Rourke, a spokesman for the authority.
O'Rourke said the authority's chairman, Joe Ashdale, will be present to hear public comments but it was unclear if any other board members would attend.
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Staff writers Tricia L. Nadolny and Jeremy Roebuck contributed to this article.