Lebo Citizens: Matt Smith signs on to House Bill 737, Unpaid Parking Tickets Bill

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Matt Smith signs on to House Bill 737, Unpaid Parking Tickets Bill

A reader sent me this information today.

Dear Elaine,

Thank you for your honest blogging. I’ve been reading it since Day One. I have been following the parking ticket issues closely. I read where someone on your blog wrote:

Anonymous said...

While I think it's good that Dave and Dave and Bill and Bill and other are bring these things to light. Have you ever considered that the reason they don’t listen is because of the way you express yourselves? In the last 3 PA posts you have attacked the municipality, the fomer PA board, the Auditor, the solicitor, the employees. After reading the way they are treated I would ignore you too. Maybe if you were nicer they would listen. Maybe not.

June 11, 2012 12:16 PM

I’ve also read things on your blog about how people don’t do anything about the wrongs that are happening, so I decided to hunt for ways to expose the people whose unpaid parking tickets have caused this mess. The people who are responsible for not collecting the ticket money are not doing their jobs. Therefore, I started to research parking tickets and found how millions and millions of dollars are not paid to towns and cities all over the Commonwealth and even the Nation. If you break the law, you should have to pay the consequences. I found House Bill 737 and saw that this Bill has been sitting in the Transportation Committee for 16 months. Why would it be sitting there for 16 months? So I made calls to all the legislators, including Matt Smith at 412-571-2169. He called me back today and thanked me for calling him about the Bill I found. He called the Transportation committee where this bill is hung up at and “signed on to it” and is “pushing” for this bill to be discussed in committee. He asked me to get the word out and said I could put it on the blog. He said to post “Leadership” Mike Turzai’s office, at 717-772-9943 so that this Bill can get going.

If we are nice, we get ignored and the aggressive people get their fields turfed with our money while streets are not getting fixed, unless we float bonds. I hope your readers call Mike Turzai’s office.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...: Not trying to be argumentative and unfortunately I can't open the file on the House Bill to see what it says.
If it's just another list of penalties that don't get enforced what difference does it make?
The parking authority said if fines were unpaid your vehicle would either be towed or booted.
That seems like pretty strong penalties. If your car is impounded or inoperable until the fines are satisfied, I'd think people would pay them.
If the penalties aren't enforced they're just empty threats whether they're in a HB or not.; June 12, 2012 at 6:11 PM
Lebo Citizens said...: I am not at my computer at the moment, so I can't help you. The link is to House Bill 737. Google PA House Bill 737 and you should be able to find it. Hope that helps.
Elaine; June 12, 2012 at 6:40 PM
Jack Mulliken said...: link http://legiscan.com/gaits/view/278434; June 12, 2012 at 9:40 PM
Anonymous said...: Thanks Jack that worked - " providing for surrender of registration plates and cards upon suspension or revocation, for suspension of registration upon sixth unpaid parking violation"

So if we can't figure out why $800,000 in unpaid fines went undiscovered- exactly who will inform PennDOT that registrations should be suspended?; June 12, 2012 at 10:33 PM
Anonymous said...: Why do we need a House Bill to enforce local laws? If enforcement was occurring at our local level there would be compliance or, if not, fees collected for non-compliance.

Why were there not boots for the notorious parking violators, or could there have been liens placed if the violators owned property? Dave Egler’s letter was a real eye-opener and it’s hard to imagine the lost revenue and waste that has occurred over the years. I give Dave credit because I think he has participated in every Commissioners meeting that I have ever attended. Thank you, Dave!

Now, the question is will there be an investigation and subsequent attempt to uncover the uncollected revenue and then get it into the Municipal coffers where it belongs? (Letter below has been sent to the Commissioners)

-Charlotte Stephenson

Commissioners:

I find the information stated in Dave Egler’s letter posted on the Lebo Citizens blog extremely concerning if what he described is true.

I urge you to investigate the circumstances around the alleged $800,000.00 lost parking violation revenue, described outstanding lease and rent payments and cost overruns associated with the Academy Avenue lot. Please hold those who owe money or who may not have adequately performed their responsibilities whether they were related to project planning, departmental auditing or any other capacity as charged by the Municipality responsible for their actions. Our stakeholders deserve answers about the status of these monetary and other Municipal assets.

Please consider initiating an independent third party investigation of these accusations. This “tip of the iceberg” has certainly breached the public trust and, therefore, at this point an independent investigation is required.

Sincerely,

Charlotte Stephenson; June 13, 2012 at 1:12 AM
Anonymous said...: I believe this Bill pertains only to the cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Bill Lewis; June 13, 2012 at 8:37 AM
Anonymous said...: House Bill 737 has been parked in the Transportation Committee for 16months. Wow I wish I had 16 months to get my work done. The Bill can be what ever the committee makes it. But they have to discuss it to make that happen.

Sue Dixon; June 13, 2012 at 9:02 AM
Anonymous said...: Maybe the people who have bird feeders within reach of deer can make up for the parking ticket revenue with their $1000 fines.
David Huston; June 13, 2012 at 9:25 AM
Anonymous said...: The bill mentioned above only pertains to the City of Brotherly Love, Pennsylvania's only first class city.

Pennsylvania has one first class city, one second class city, one second class-A city, and 53 third class cities. Pennsylvania Local
Government Fact Sheet, Governor’s Center for Local Government Services, Pennsylvania Department of Community and
Economic Development, August 2005, (June 20, 2006).

David Huston; June 13, 2012 at 9:31 AM
Anonymous said...: Philadelphia for those who are too young or have forgotten was the city that sent parking tickets, fines and penalties to drivers all over the state- many of whom were never ever in the City of Brotherly Love.
Often the recipient had to pay legal cost to prove they were never there.; June 13, 2012 at 10:56 AM
Anonymous said...: David,

I originally thought the Bill pertained to Philly only until I read subsection (f) Definition. of Section 1379, on page 4, lines 2-6 which indicates the Bill is applicable to "...and a parking authority in a city of the second class known as the Pittsburgh Parking Authority." as well.

Seems like it's that old *the devil's in the details* thing once again.

Bill Lewis; June 13, 2012 at 12:17 PM
Anonymous said...: I sent earlier post that apparently didn't go thru or Elaine didn't approve. This PG article on parking tickets dates to 2001. There arenothers back to 1984 in the Pgh Press. So now Harrisburg's answer to uncollected fines is to take the drivers registration away, making the burden of a possible erroneous ticket an even bigger fight. Oh boy, govt. In action working for us.

L. Walsh / Phantom of the Traffic Court
Friday, February 23, 2001

Remember the phony Philadelphia parking tickets?

They were more frequent than foul balls at Three Rivers Stadium a few decades ago.

You'd come home from work, check the mail and there it was -- an official citation from the City of Brotherly Love telling you to pay up for improperly parking your car on a Philly street.

Never mind that you had never:

1) been in Philadelphia on the date listed on the tag.

2) been to Philadelphia in your life.

3) even heard of Philadelphia.

The phony tickets caused quite a stir at the time. They also were a hassle to deal with. It took more than a phone call to straighten things out. The best way to handle it was to send a notarized affidavit to the Philadelphia Traffic Court stating that neither you nor your car was in the city at the time of the infraction.

Although the phony Philly parking tickets appeared to be thinly veiled revenue-raisers for that city, the parking ticket Pittsburgh sent to Donald Garman of Snyder County was a mistake.

He's willing to give the nation's former Most Livable City the benefit of the doubt.

Garman, 62, a former postal clerk, lives in Mount Pleasant Mills, a small town about 40 miles north of Harrisburg.

Last November, he received a summons from the Pittsburgh Traffic Court for an alleged parking violation at 1:01 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 3 on "Montery" Street. There is no "Montery" Street in Pittsburgh. There is, however, a Monterey Street on the North Side. It's one of the Mexican War streets.

I realize the officer who wrote the ticket might have been in a hurry and Pat Sajak of "Wheel of Fortune" wasn't around to offer an "e" to correctly spell Monterey. But let's call that mistake No. 1.

Then, when the officer wrote down the license plate of the offending vehicle, Garman believes the officer may have written a "u" that someone in traffic court thought was a "v." Or, the traffic court employee may have misread one of the other letters or numbers the officer wrote on the ticket.

Let's call that mistake No. 2.

So, Garman got a ticket for "no parking street cleaning" and was directed to send $15 fine plus $27 in costs via check, money order or credit card to traffic court.

The summons notice also told him that "Failure to respond to this notice in 10 days will result in a warrant being issued for your arrest [all of the preceding words were underlined] under appropriate sections of the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure."

Although Garman's correct license plate number was typed on the summons, it identified him as the owner of a Nissan 300XZ. Garman doesn't own a Nissan 300XZ. He drives a 1984 AMC Eagle station wagon.

He said he also wasn't in Pittsburgh on Oct 3. "The last time I was in Pittsburgh was about 10 years ago," he said.

"It would appear that an error has been made by the Pittsburgh police department or your office," he wrote in a Nov. 20 letter to Traffic Court. "Please advise as to what disposition will be made out of the subject summons."; June 13, 2012 at 2:07 PM
Anonymous said...: So if Mr. Walsh was corrected in 2001 about this: "The summons notice also told him that "Failure to respond to this notice in 10 days will result in a warrant being issued for your arrest [all of the preceding words were underlined] under appropriate sections of the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure."

Why does Matt Smith and others in Harrisburg think we need another bill to enforce parking tickets?

Don't you just love it when politicians work for you!; June 13, 2012 at 2:29 PM
Anonymous said...: Also from the Walsh article: "The phony tickets caused quite a stir at the time. They also were a hassle to deal with. It took more than a phone call to straighten things out. The best way to handle it was to send a notarized affidavit to the Philadelphia Traffic Court stating that neither you nor your car was in the city at the time of the infraction."
So an innocent resident had to or HAS TO (since Phantom Philly Tickets are still a problem in 2012) take time and spend money to prove they're are innocent of the ticket. Now our representatives want to include the hassle of taking your registration. So if you get a phony ticket not only will you have to fight it but possible ly charges of driving without a license should you get stopped for a traffic violation.
How about Mr. Smith including in the bill- should a citizen prove the original ticket and any subsequent fines or violations due to a phony parking ticket, the resident will be reimbursed for lost time, money and legal fees???; June 13, 2012 at 3:18 PM
Anonymous said...: Yep 3:18, sort of like the school district taking $150 of YOUR money to hire a pro to argue against YOUR appeal that YOUR home isn't worth what they say it is.

Why not just eliminate the game and have the school district flip a coin...
Heads I Win, Tails You lose! :-(
Baaaaaaaaaa; June 13, 2012 at 5:03 PM
Anonymous said...: Rep. Turzai, Rep. Smith:
When exactly does Harrisburg intend to start working for it's citizens.
Tabled liquor store issue.
Tabled property tax reform.
Tabled school choice.
Decades (back to the '80s) of issues with Philly Phoney parking tickets and the fix from Harrisburg after 16 months. Surrender your registration unpaid fines.
Absolutely brilliant, almost as smart as here in MTL where we raise parking fees and fines, but turn a blind eye to $800,000 in unpaid tickets.
Baaaaaaaaaa; June 13, 2012 at 8:57 PM
Anonymous said...: Smith needs the money from the sale of your car to pay off Gummit employees.; June 13, 2012 at 10:07 PM
Anonymous said...: GoErie.com - May 26, 2012

“Marcia Taylor, Mt. Lebanon's assistant manager, said there are more than 20,000 outstanding tickets, although some people have multiple tickets -- including one person with 159 tickets -- and some, just a few.

Those with more than five unpaid tickets might be subject to booting, towing or citation from the district judge, Taylor said.

"We're being fairly aggressive," she said. "We're going to stay on top of this."

Susan Frost; June 14, 2012 at 9:28 PM
Anonymous said...: To clear up the record on HB 1776 (property tax elimination), Mr. Smith voted NOT to table the bill and he should be commended. It was tabled by most Republicans on the Finance Committee. Look it up.; June 15, 2012 at 10:32 AM
Lebo Citizens said...: You couldn't sign your name to that? Who cares what my policy is, right?
Elaine; June 15, 2012 at 11:47 AM