Drivers gather to vent anger at parking agency

Halloween is still two weeks away, but there was no shortage of horror stories Saturday at a town meeting on the Philadelphia Parking Authority.

Some motorists told of malfunctioning parking kiosks; others said that their cars had been towed because of clerical errors, and that they had been charged hundreds of dollars to get them back. Two women said the parking authority had confiscated and sold their cars over violations they never committed.

The meeting, organized by a citizens group, the People's Choice Movement Coalition, attracted a diverse crowd of about 35 to the Berean Institute at 19th Street and Girard Avenue.

Community organizer Lawrence Clark, who planned the meeting, called the authority an "out-of-control monster that needs to be fed."

He said he was working with lawyers to file a civil lawsuit, hoping to force the agency to give people 60 days to establish financial hardship before their cars are auctioned.

People whose vehicles are towed can be fined thousands of dollars in parking tickets dating back years or even decades, Clark said. If they can't pay 80 percent, the cars can be sold at auction within 15 days.

Even the IRS is more compassionate, he said.

A parking authority spokeswoman said no one from the agency had been invited to offer a defense.

Flanked by lawyers, Clark asked attendees to take three minutes to tell stories of their run-ins with the authority. The two hours planned for the meeting wasn't enough time to hear them all.

Vada Johnson-Wiggins of Bala Cynwyd said she had been pulled over at 49th and Chestnut Streets for failing to turn on her lights. She was driving a new car and wasn't used to the controls yet. The police told her that her license had been revoked and made her step out of the car.

The parking authority towed the car, leaving the 62-year-old grandmother to find her own way home on a cold night in November.

Johnson-Wiggins said that she had subsequently proved her license was valid, but that the authority had told her she owed more than $500 in fees and fines for towing and storage. When she got the car back, she said, several items, including the GPS, were missing.

Winifred Moton-Connor of Strawberry Mansion said she had been headed to a meeting near 17th and Vine Streets and, because it was after 6 p.m., thought she could park on the street near a sign that said no parking was allowed between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

"But I got back from the meeting, and there was no car." Nearby, she discovered, another sign said there was no parking between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. - the reverse of the first sign. After spending more than $100 in fees she got her car, but she considers this a "parking trap."

In June, Kevin Corrigan rode his motorcycle from his home in Bucks County to Second and South Streets, where he stopped for lunch. He said that he had tried to pay at the parking kiosk, but that it wouldn't accept coins, bills, or a credit card.

Corrigan tried to inform someone sitting in a parking authority vehicle, he said, but when he returned from lunch he had a ticket and someone had put a kiosk stub on his windshield. "Was that to try to prove the kiosk was working?" he asked. He said he kept requesting a hearing but had yet to be granted one as his fees compounded.

"Now I'll think twice about coming to Center City to spend money," Corrigan said.

Linda Miller, a spokeswoman for the parking authority, said later that kiosks had been affected by some technical glitches, but that people could explain that at a hearing.

And motorists who lose their cars have plenty of opportunities to pay up or fight the charges in hearings, Miller said. "Auction is the last step," she said.

Clark said he'd like to see more compassion and oversight. In addition to making it harder for the parking authority to take away cars, he said, he wants an independent review board with citizen representation to audit the authority's current practices.