DV Journal

Seconds count when Philadelphia enforces parking, which University of Pennsylvania graduate student Adama Berndt discovered on March 2, 2024. After mailing a package near campus, he returned to his vehicle just as the meter expired.

A Philadelphia Parking Authority officer was in position, ready to issue a $36 citation before Berndt could drive away. “He knocked on my window and handed it to me,” said Berndt, a UPenn Neuroscience Graduate Group student.

Hoping for leniency, Berndt went home and launched a dispute. This ended the city’s urgency.

An in-person hearing was not possible. The Bureau of Administrative Adjudication spells out the restriction in a red banner across the top of its website: “Customer Alert: In-person hearings at BAA are available for booted/towed vehicles only.”

Berndt had one option. He had to file his dispute online and wait. Philadelphia says it responds typically within four to six weeks, but this is just a guideline with no guarantee. To be safe, Berndt started logging on to the dispute portal frequently and checking for updates.

Weeks and months passed. Nothing happened. Then, one day in October 2024, Berndt received a civil default order in the mail.

Philadelphia had considered his case and ruled against him in August without updating the website. The city then stayed quiet for two months while late fees accrued. The new debt was $101.

Berndt, a married father living on a modest university stipend, was shocked. His last hope was a single line on his default order: “You may request a hearing by web or by mail.” This turned out to be another trick. When Berndt called the city, he learned that his window for appeal had closed before he knew he had lost. The lack of timely notification did not matter.

Berndt had waited and waited. Then suddenly, he was too late. “They get an unlimited amount of time to respond,” he says. “They can take six weeks, six months, or two years if they want. And I get one month.”

The power imbalance is typical of parking enforcement nationwide. It’s a rigged game.

Ameera Shaheed fought back with a lawsuit in Wilmington, Del., after the city gave her several parking tickets within a few days — and then impounded and scrapped her vehicle while her appeal was pending. Our public interest law firm, the Institute for Justice, represented her.

The result was total victory. A settlement, which the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware approved on Dec. 17, 2024, will require multiple violation notices, easy payment plans, and convenient hearings for parking tickets.

Most cities offer none of these. They demand strict compliance from vehicle owners but give themselves the flexibility to violate the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which promises due process.

One trick is a short window to pay or appeal before late fees kick in. The deadline is 15 days in Dallas, 10 days in Boise, Idaho, and seven days in Normal, Ill. Many cities require payment upfront for the privilege of a hearing.

When people fall behind, cities can impound their cars and hold the vehicles ransom until all debts are paid in full. Costs add up fast in Cincinnati. Vehicle owners must pay $190 for towing, $25 for processing, $25 per day — plus tax — for storage, and an extra $75 for “extended storage” after five days.

People too poor to pay are out of luck. Cincinnati can auction a vehicle or scrap it after 20 days of impoundment. The window is just 15 calendar days for certain cars in Connecticut and 10 business days in New York City.

Regarding parking enforcement, cities follow a simple rule: Leniency for me, not for thee. Berndt studies something different than public policy in his UPenn program, but he recognizes a scam when he sees one. It’s not brain science.

The Delaware Valley Journal obtained a copy of a confidential audit of the Upper Darby parking ticket scandal that resulted in a class action lawsuit lodged against the township.

The audit, really more of a report by the accounting firm Brinker Simpson, does not include some of the information that most people would like to know, such as exactly how many parking tickets did not reach the courts and how much money did the township fail to collect as a result.

Instead, it details how employees failed to send the tickets to the courts after a software change and that there appeared to be no oversight from the township administration under Mayor Barbarann Keffer.  Keffer did not respond to voicemail or email requests for comments on Wednesday.

“Before January 2021, there were no issues with unpaid parking tickets filed with the (courts),” the report said. “The change to the new Passport software system was not managed successfully, and there appears to have been no centralized decision-making. Our analysis indicates the township lacked the project management procedures and internal controls to prevent the breakdown that occurred as it related to the unpaid parking tickets and the failure of Upper Darby to timely submit the citations to the (courts)…the transition from the old system to the new system was not successful.”

The audit said, “The internal controls in the Parking Department are currently unsatisfactory to safeguard township assets, and we are making recommendations to clearly define levels of responsibilities through documented procedures and financial oversight.”

Also, “we were not able to identify a project manager or project team responsible for implementation of a strategic plan a schedule or oversight to ensure new software would have the functionality, integration and technical support needed….”

The audit said the township had two IT consultants who reported to two different managers.

In January 2020, the parking director was appointed as director of parking enforcement, and the audit said her emails were not forwarded. Also, the new program, Passport, did not have a direct interface with the courts, and it still doesn’t, the audit said.

And the parking department did not follow the court-required process of ensuring ticket batches were received.   The last files the courts received were in April 2021, until those sent in 2023.

In May 2022, Keffer and her administrative officer took steps to make parking violations civil rather than criminal issues.

The audit said that from 2016 to 2020, revenue from parking meter fines increased by $207,075. Parking lot revenue and district court fines decreased by $73,000 but included licenses and inspections.

In 2022, citation revenue increased by $130,000 to $599,433.

“Our findings suggest that a lack of communication and centralized oversight, restrictive access to IT support, and lack of internal controls and documented procedures led to the failure of parking tickets being filed timely with the state,” the audit said. “Evidence suggests that there was not a clear understanding of the complexities of the administration of the department that relied on consistent communication with (the courts), police, and IT, especially when adding new software.”

Constable Jack Kelly asked DA Jack Stollsteimer to investigate the parking ticket mess. Kelly said there are 15,000 to 22,000 unpaid parking tickets docketed most years.

“They bypassed the process and never sent anything to the courts,” he said. And people who did not their tickets paid never received their court summonses.

And then some cars got “booted,” he said.

“What gives you the right to boot somebody who has not been before  a judge?” Kelly asked.

Former Upper Darby Mayor Tom Micozzie blamed Keffer for firing all the people who knew how the township was run immediately after taking office.

“That’s a problem,” said Micozzie. “A serious problem. How can you run a $98 million corporation (the township) with 427 employees? I get you’re entitled to your own administration, which really means your CAO…But then you get into firing the L&I, the finance director…I would not have had him out on the first day, in the middle of budget.”

Council President Brian Burke said a court clerk reported the township suddenly sent 18,000 unpaid tickets through. At $35 a ticket, that would be $630,000 in revenue uncollected, not to mention additional penalties.

“I believe there’s a lot of problems,” he said. During a council meeting, Burke pressed solicitor Sean Kilkenny about why the township did not respond proactively to a Feb. 7 letter from the court about the missing parking tickets, Broad + Liberty reported. The Delaware County Court administrator then sent another letter about the tickets on May 1.

Vince Rangione, who had been the township’s chief administrative officer, left office in January after months of controversy and secured a severance deal from the township that allowed him to keep his salary through July 31 and health benefits until the end of the year.

The confidential report includes his memos to staff telling them they could not ask the IT people for help without permission.

“No employee is to contact (the person) directly unless authorized by Scott (Alberts),” Rangione wrote in that memo. Alberts is the director of administrative services.

Burke, who switched from Democrat to Republican and is running for mayor, believes he can do a better job.  Keffer, who was arrested for DUI and spent time in rehab, is not running again.  Democrat Edward Brown, the current school board president, will face off against Burke this fall.

“There’s nothing confidential about (the audit),” Micozzie added. “A lot of people are pushing for it. They want to see the audit.”

Please follow DVJournal on social media: Twitter@DVJournal or Facebook.com/DelawareValleyJournal