A roll call, uh Mr.

Hanlin.

Here's the lot here.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

So good evening to everyone.

Um, tonight's special meeting is a continuation of our public meetings with our community partners to strengthen communication, improve coordination, and focus on identifying improvement opportunities for Allentown residents, the business community, and our visitors.

This evening's special meeting is to allow the Allentown Parking Authority to provide an overview of operations and review current and future initiatives at the APA.

Following the presentation of APA executive director John Haney, he will provide answers and feedback for questions that have been submitted by my colleagues.

After that portion of the of the agenda, there will be a cursey of the floor for members of the public.

So we're gonna kick this off, Mr.

Haney.

Um we'll start with a general overview and yep, perfect.

Thank you.

All right.

Good evening, uh, members of council.

Uh thank you for the opportunity to come and speak.

I realize I'm breaking your laws right off the bat because I'm not supposed to have a drink, but I have a feeling I'm gonna be doing a lot of talking, so need to whip my whistle if you'll bear with me.

No problem.

So uh what I would like to start off with uh before we get into other questions that you all have for me.

I just want to have uh a few moments to go over the annual report that was submitted for your review uh and point out some of the things that the the Allentown Parking Authority has done uh in the previous year.

Uh, we don't really get a lot of an opportunity to speak publicly like this and share the good things that we're doing.

So I'm gonna take the opportunity to do that.

Um I understand you all have had this report already, I assume.

I just want to point out some of 2025's accomplishments.

Um the Allentown Parking Authority purchased a lot and acquired a second lot on the 400 block of Ridge Avenue for development uh to expand surface parking in the area of extreme need that's over on uh Ridge Ave right at Gordon.

Um very dense uh neighborhood, a lot of surface parking need over there.

We do have other surface lots there.

Uh they're all sold out and have waiting lists.

So I'm looking forward to this year excitedly to open that, uh, do a ribbon cutting and provide those residents over there some relief for parking.

Um parking authority was also able to uh track down and remove 132 abandoned vehicles from city streets, uh thus getting them out of the way and opening those spots for others to use.

Um we were very excited to cooperate with the city's traffic and engineering department and create 66 new parking spaces in areas around town that were not previously open for parking.

Um the APA was also working with the county auto theft task force to identify eight stolen vehicles and get them returned to their owners.

Our APA dispatch line answered 17,866 calls uh from a public requesting enforcement service.

The renewed focus on handicap space program uh triggered a review and identified 92 handicapped spaces in town that were no longer needed and were able to be returned to open public use.

Um APA project manager manager is nearing completion of a mapping detail that will identify the number of parking spaces that exist on public streets in Allentown.

We also launched a new payment plan option for individuals to use that have received parking tickets.

We also work with individuals in the arts community and Senator Miller's office to commission a mural that is just about to be started on our spiral deck on the south face.

Those are just some of the highlights of the things that we were doing, and we'll get to some more uh as the evening goes on here.

Uh but I also want to say you know that the good things we're doing don't come without some challenges.

Uh the APA, like most cities and and other organizations, um, have to deal with modernization.

Um we're taking a hard look at some of our parking ordinances to try to bring them up to speed and up to current date.

Uh hopefully at some point soon we'll have something to submit to council for review.

So the APA is looking at what technology options are available to us to help make a better parking system available to the city and to the residents and visitors that come here.

The APA has made strides thanks to some moves that council made for us last 2024.

And those changes have allowed us to come back to a point where we're we're back above water.

So thank you to council for your help in that.

And last but not least, some of the challenges we face are aging parking decks.

A lot of our parking decks are nearing 20 years old.

With one that's 56 years old, that's our spiral deck.

Keeping those decks maintained and in good proper working condition is always a challenge and unfortunately very costly to take care of.

So those are some of the things that we're we're we're dealing with.

Looking into the future, the opportunity our opportunities that we have.

And the hope is to continue to provide parking relief where we can out in our neighborhoods that don't have as as many options to park.

And we put that out for a bid, and the art museum should be bringing us a nice new facility there in the coming years.

Providing as many options as we can.

We have the on-street kiosks, which allow a number of different payment options.

We also have the mobile payment option that's now available.

But we also still have old single space meters sporadically around town too.

So as we move forward into the future, we're looking to bring those extra options to those blocks as well.

Long-term goals and scenarios, uh opportunities, we continue to look for those off-street options in our parking neighborhoods and bring maintenance standards up on our decks.

And of course, five finances will always be an issue.

Um, but we're looking to move the parking authorities' vision into the next digital and technology period.

So that is where we're going.

Thank you.

And um, it was good to hear because um you didn't email council an annual report back in January, but it's been it's been four months.

So thanks for the recap.

So if you're finished with your portion, I'm gonna get into some of the questions from colleagues.

So we'll just go in order.

Um the first one I have is if you have any towing data with um regarding uh the reasons for tows and uh any numbers that any data uh yes, uh the authority does track um all the vehicles that we tow and the various reasons that we tow them.

Um I brought with me our current results through 2026.

Uh so far this year, the authority has had to tow 156 vehicles.

Uh the breakdown on that comes down to uh 72 hour uh violations where we had to remove 43 vehicles.

Uh we towed 70 vehicles from fire hydrants, uh 12 for unpaid parking tickets, and 31, which we put underneath our miscellaneous category.

Uh that basically falls into a lot of different uh areas.

So if a vehicle parks and is blocking a roadway, it's considered a hazard, we put that in a miscellaneous.

If we happen to come across the vehicle where an owner has stripped it and left it sitting on blocks, uh, we'll put that toe in the miscellaneous category.

So we're up to 31 there.

Just to give you a more full year picture.

2025 we towed 957 vehicles under the same breakdowns, uh 72 hour violations, which are basically abandoned vehicles or vehicles that haven't moved in the required 72 hours was 210.

We removed 28 vehicles from private property, 166 fire hydrants, 380 uh for unpaid parking tickets, and then 174 in that miscellaneous category.

Okay, thank you.

And just for for those here who aren't aware, so 72 is abandoned vehicles.

Can you just elaborate on how those become abandoned and you know to the authority?

Like how does that work?

Sure.

So from what I can ascertain from the ordinance, the purpose is to keep you know a vehicle from being stored for too long on a city street.

Uh whether it's left there and abandoned, or whether you know someone's been away or went on a long trip or other reasons, uh, car dealer parked up a block and left all the cars there for sales, anything along those lines.

Uh the authority is asked to mark those, time them, and make sure that either the vehicles are noticed to move, and if they don't, then our remedy is we we will remove them from the street then.

It's not something the authority actively goes out looking for.

Um 80% of the vehicles that we tow are due to a resident complaint or some kind of phoned in complaint to us to let us know.

Uh the other 20% are mainly those ones that I mentioned before, the miscellaneous ones where a car's been obviously left on the street, it's up on blocks, the doors are missing, uh, things of that nature.

So those, you know, you can't miss those.

We will take care of that.

Uh but your average regular car that's sitting there, 80% that those are phoned in complaints where the authority's been asked to come out and take care of that issue.

Okay.

Um so we'll move along.

Um, number two, um, me.

Oh, go ahead.

Oh, go ahead.

Sorry.

Yeah.

Just related to towing.

I'm just curious.

Um, the specific procedure for towing, does Dallentown parking authority boot a car before it's towed in every instance, or is this Yes?

Okay.

Is there any specific reasoning for that?

Or so there is.

Uh, we we have a contract with um a third-party vendor, uh, happens to be the same towing company the city uses.

And per that contract, when we make a call to them to come out and remove the vehicle, the authorities automatically build for that call.

Uh, so we need to make sure if we're gonna go that far to have someone come out that we hold the car in place so that it doesn't end up moving before the towing company arrives to take care of it.

Now, there are mean means and methods for an owner to go ahead and make payment and then we'll release it and they won't get towed.

Uh, but the purpose for the boot is to make sure that the person doesn't move the car and then the authority is ended up with the bill.

And I just I guess I'm curious in in the in the case that somebody does end up getting towed and it was a means and method.

Is there a procedure to remedy that just given that the boot is placed for a hold and then the car got towed anyway?

You mean like not charged for the boot going on?

There are some scenarios where we do that.

Um trying to think off the top of my head what those are.

I know there's a few of them, uh, but generally the the boot fee is there because it takes us time, we have to come out and apply it.

There's a lot of paperwork that goes into that.

Uh so the fees for that are purchase of the boots and our officers' time and all the paperwork that goes into filling that out.

Okay.

No, I just I know I got several comments about this and the compounding effect that it has on someone who's already gonna have to pay to release their car.

So thank you.

Okay.

Go ahead, uh, Mr.

Brinder.

Thank you.

Uh for the 72-hour rule.

Um, a resident at a I think it was last last month when a lot of the snow stuff was happening, but um, voiced some frustration that I don't know if they're in a uh towing dist, I'm sorry, in a street sweeping district or not, but they voiced some frustration in that they have to move their car, they were from home from one side to the other side to the other side.

Is it the kind of practice where if the car is tagged and it moves 15 feet forward?

Does it still consider 72 hours?

Um is it the old?

I mean, could you elaborate on the I know the typical previously it was chalked and now I think there's probably technology for that, but how do you consider the 72-hour stationary rule uh to be in place?

So we use technology.

Uh that's one area where we have invested and we have the ability to come out and we can no longer put a physical mark on the tire, but if the streets clear, we'll mark the ground so there's a picture to compare to when we come back.

But our system will actually take pictures of the wheels and you can see where the STEM markings are and other things on the street to tell whether a vehicle has moved.

Um it is not uncommon, you know, for us to mark somebody and the and the person leaves and goes to the store and comes back, and hey, lo and behold, my same spots there.

Uh so we try to use those visual clues through the the digital technology to determine whether they have moved or not.

So you use the two, which is the bark and where the stem position is.

So the unlikely probability that those two are exactly the same, but I guess that could be it's happened before, believe it or not.

You know, I mean the odds are that it wouldn't happen that way, but it has.

So we have had to work with uh a person on a rare occasion uh when that happens, but there's also other things to look at too.

So very, very rare when that's and in those cases.

I'm just gonna use your example on that one.

They went to the store to pick something up.

Um is that something where they would appeal that ticket and say, hey, here's my receipt, I was at the store clearly?

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Ms.

Garlock, go ahead.

Um, do you have a rough estimate as to where the majority of the towing uh the cars are towed from?

Is it center city, West End, East Side?

Congress Street, Shunshine Court.

The majority of cars that we tow for for storage would come from those.

It's behind auto shops where they end up putting the rest of the car out on the street for us.

Yeah, that would be the absolute majority where all most of the 72 hour tows happen.

And you're saying that 80% of them, it's from people called.

So you're saying that 80% of the towing is from people who maybe live in the residential area around the auto shops and are sick of having the cars there, so they call in and they're towed.

No.

Um, so maybe I was not as clear as I could be on that.

20 that 20% of the cars that we tow for abandoned, are that's what we're looking for.

It's those areas where we know those cars are being pushed to.

Uh, when you ask where are the majority of 72s towed from, well, it happens to be the same thing.

Um, so it's not the residents calling in that.

We try to be proactive and keep that taken care of.

The 80% is residents calling in all over the rest of the city.

Where would you say most of those 80% people are calling in?

I I would love to be that good, but I don't know that one.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay, um, Ms.

Moda.

Can you explain something about the payment plan?

Payment plans?

So that's something the authority did to provide another option uh for people.

Uh we had noticed that uh there are a number of residents when they come in with parking tickets will automatically default to asking for a hearing from the MDJ, the magistrator district judge.

And the reason they would give us is well, we want to go on a payment plan.

So after hearing this for some time, the board discussed, you know, can't we do this ourselves?

And we looked into it, and our our technology was able to make that available to people.

So there are some guidelines on it.

Uh a person with a parking ticket in the first 10 days of the life of the ticket has to come and ask for for the payment plan.

We can't do it beyond 10 days because the the time crunch between when the ticket has to be paid and sent to the the courts for adjudication, it just makes the payment tiers it doesn't make sense to do it that way.

It's got to be done early to make the payment small enough to be worthwhile uh before it gets there.

So that's in essence how it works.

You come in within the first 10 days of the ticket, ask for a payment plan, and we'll put it on you.

And you have six installments to pay um before the ticket moves on to court if it's not paid in full.

And it freezes the violation.

The fine is frozen at that first 10-day amount.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Go ahead.

Sorry, since we're on parking uh payment plan.

I'm just curious, do all current violation slips to date note the payment plan on the ticket itself?

I don't believe it's noted on the ticket itself.

Okay.

So this is could be added.

Okay.

Well, yeah, I'm just curious if people either know that option's available or that there's that 10-day limit.

I think some folks might think, you know, hey, I have until 30 days before it's sent to court to submit this payment plan, and you know, somebody who waits 15 may not have that opportunity.

So understood.

And we do advertise it on our website, it's pushed out in social media posts as on occasion.

I believe we also did a press release for it.

I'm not sure if it got picked up, but we certainly do what we can to put that information out there.

Go ahead.

Yeah, we're gonna go in order.

So I'll make you a lot of things.

Yeah, so we have one more on towing.

Um I have a payment plan question before we get back on track.

All right, fair enough.

Um, Mr.

Bender on coming.

All right.

Um so question related to the technology and where the tickets are occurring.

Is is the is the technology such that it would be, and I'm gonna use the word easy to plot that on a map.

So you have an overlay of saying here's where towing or plate is taking place, here's where you know most of these um violations are taking place that could be layered, or is that something that's very difficult?

So the reporting is is fairly robust.

It can be um basically hashed out in a CSV file, which would give you location and all of that.

Um there are some mapping capabilities inside too.

I'm not sure if we could make it specific to towing because towing is not necessarily a it's not a parking ticket violation, so to speak.

Um is the booting for towing specific?

Like is that unique?

Or is it just it's not yeah, booting is not a parking ticket, it's it's a fee that's added on service.

So uh it's certainly something I could ask our vendor if that's possible.

Okay, just just curious.

But running the reports and getting the locations is it's the same thing I could do for a ticket.

So I don't know how hard it would be to bring that all right, thank you.

Sure.

Uh Ms.

Garlock.

I have several questions.

Um so I'll just do one at a time.

Um, so in order to get on the payment plan, uh if they can find if they go to the website, they'll find out about it, and then they need to physically show up.

There's no like online way to click something that says I want to be on a payment payment plan.

You know, Ms.

Garlock, I want to say that you can do it online, but don't quote me on that.

I I'll get you an answer.

Okay, that would be cool.

I think you can, but let me find out for sure.

And if there was a way to print it on the ticket so people would know that they have that option.

Um then um do you have any rough data as to how many people so far have taken advantage of the plan and then going further?

Um, how many of people um have taken advantage of the plan and then not fulfilled all their payments?

Like how is it working essentially?

So it yeah, I actually was looking into this before I came tonight.

Um since August of 2025 through March of 2026, I believe we had 286 such plans enacted.

Um of those around 70% of them followed all the way through and made the installments and paid it off.

Uh roughly 23% never did finish the payment plan, and the remainder ended up being sent to court.

And then at the time the other seven percent were just in process.

So 286, I believe.

Can one be if one gets multiple tickets?

Because I've been we've all if you live in center city, you've gotten multiple tickets.

So can one be on a payment plan for each ticket, or can one only be on one payment plan for one ticket?

Yeah, to answer your question, yeah.

The payment plans are they're they're separate to each ticket.

Got it.

So if you had five tickets, let's just say yeah, you could be on five separate payment plans, one for each ticket.

And uh there's no limit.

So if every single time you get a ticket, you need a payment plan, you can always get one, or is there like a cap?

So there's no cap, uh, but there is a uh provision that if you if you take a plan and you don't pay it off, we're not gonna give you another one.

That was uh like ever or within standards set by the board when we put this plan in place.

Got you ever or just within a year within a certain time frame?

I believe it's ever.

Ooh.

Oh, okay.

Oh, not playing around.

Um, okay.

Um discussed that at our board meeting.

So these were the criteria set down.

Put a ticket, uh, miss a payment.

That was my question.

What happens if you miss a payment?

Um say too, um, we we did realize that there could be scenarios where that may happen and it was not intentional.

So we we do have the latitude to exercise some discretion depending upon the scenario.

If someone suffered a medical episode or they got a car crash and they didn't finish their plan, we're not gonna ban them forever.

You know, we'll work with people in scenarios like that.

And is there a grace period or it's due on this date, therefore it's due on this date.

It's due on that date because there's a timeline that's set on parking tickets through the the court system.

So we only have until a certain period, and then they have to go forward.

So last question on this.

Um, is um the payments are made online, and and if so, is there a convenience fee to make them online, or do they must they also be made in person?

I believe there is a convenience fee that that's on each payment if you choose to do it online.

But they could go in person.

If you come in the office, the the fee is not there.

Oh, thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay.

And I'll quickly add um, even if the payment, if a payment is missed, it doesn't matter as long as it's paid for.

One of the things that the board worked on, I was on the board at the time was um as long as it was it was paid, it didn't matter if the payments weren't followed.

So you could skip a payment and double up the next one, or so they're they're flexible with the payments.

It's not like a payment has to be made, you know, every slot.

So that was something that uh we added the flexibility uh on that.

So um we're gonna go to uh number two meter study results.

Um Mr.

Haney was here um a while back, and uh council asked for a meter study.

So if you can share some of uh the results from that study.

Uh sure, yeah.

I'll just a few highlights that came out of that meter study.

Um not much to our surprise, but there were a number of blocks in town, um, of course, over time uh that were metered for a reason um a certain time ago that are now recommended to be removed.

In addition, there's other blocks that have changed over time, and now uh the the study is recommending that we add meters there.

Um there were a number of locations identified, mainly in the downtown area, 7th Street and Hamilton Street, uh, that could be repurposed for pickup or drop-off zones.

Umly that's uh a change to deal with you know the lifestyle with with after COVID with far more people getting deliveries at home and needing that kind of space to service you know items they're getting.

So uh that is in there.

Uh there was a recommendation in the meter study to take advantage of license plate reading technology to aid us in being able to better manage uh those kinds of spaces on the street.

I'm speaking to the pickup drop-off or loading zone spaces.

Um couple of other things that were in there as well.

And the other thing can we see?

Can we get that?

I will be happy to email it too.

Yeah, absolutely.

All right, cool.

Thank you.

It's a big file, so yeah, yeah.

I'll get it over to you, no problem.

All right.

Um, anything regarding meter study results.

Okay.

Uh number three is payment plan usage affectiveness.

I think we covered that with everyone.

There was one thing that um Council Person Garlock mentioned I don't recall if we got the answer to, and that was um the payments can be done strictly online, or is there any component, any component of the process that has to be done in person or can be done in person?

Uh the option is online or in person.

You could mail it in if you'd like to.

We accept mailed in payments as well.

Just want to be clear on the different payment methods.

Thank you.

Okay.

All right.

Uh number four.

Um, if you could speak to uh, you know, how uh trainings going for um parking authority enforcement officers and also the culture at the parking authority.

So all of our staff at the at the parking authority go through numerous trainings, uh, much like you know, other organizations.

Um in particular, our PEO staff goes through community relations training.

Um they're by far our most front-facing, you know, uh staff that's out there dealing in and working with the public day in and day out.

Uh so they go through all of that training as well.

It's a continual thing that the authority actually has um hired on a vendor that takes us through monthly trainings for our management staff uh as well as it's now transitioned.

Managers have done their year, and now the supervisors are taking their turn to go through uh those trainings.

Um we have a lot of options with you know, your your standard Fred Pryor kind of courses that can give us the option to help people out if they need some training in a particular area.

Um we have an actually a pretty robust staff down there.

Um you had mentioned culture.

Uh just wanted to run through a couple of numbers here and share with you all.

The authority currently employs uh 94 people in totality.

Um we have 15 white males, 16 white females, 28 Hispanic males, 10 Hispanic females, 11 African American males, 10 African American females, two Syrian males, and two Asian males.

Our makeup based on gender for the authority is 58 males, 36 females.

In our non-management roles, we have eight white males, nine female uh white females, uh 22 Hispanic males and eight female Hispanics, 10 male African American and nine female African American, uh two male Syrians and two male of Asian descent.

Of our supervisory staff, we have one white female, two Hispanic females, three white males, four Hispanic males, uh one African American female, and one African American male.

Of our management staff, of which there are eight, five white females and three um three white males, and of our four directors, uh one white male, two Hispanic males and one female white.

Of our management staff, which is 24 in total, seven white males, seven white females, six Hispanic males, and two Hispanic females, one African American male and one African American female.

As far as diversity in languages at the parking authority, uh we actually give a bonus to our staff if they can speak a foreign language and pass a foreign language test.

So far, 26 of our employees have done such, uh giving us a range of languages spoken from English, Spanish, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, forgive me on this one, patois, I believe, Punjabi, sign language, and Bulgarian.

So that's a pretty robust culture, I would think, um as far as how our organization is made up.

Okay, thank you.

Um, any questions or comments regarding training and make um go ahead, Miss Apha.

Are any of them trained to defend themselves?

We have had some trainings in not so much for physical defense, but verbal judo.

Um, the ability to de-escalate uh and not allow ourselves to get into a position where that might be the outcome.

Uh, we really don't want our staff to be involved in that kind of thing.

Uh, if it would ever come to that, uh we would ask them to simply leave the area.

Um, it's just not worth to call the police.

Well, if it if it's that required, yes, uh, we would now defend the.

Because there have been incidents where they have been attacked.

There have been some some few minor ones.

I was meaning with their defense, was just basically get in their car, call the police.

But yeah, we have had defense.

Some members from AB APD have come in.

We've had some retired law enforcement folks come in.

We've had a state trooper come in and speak to our enforcement staff and anyone else who wanted to sit in on how to recognize when things might be going in a direction that you don't want them to go and and how to respond to that.

So thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay.

Um we're gonna move to number five.

Um, we're gonna spend some time on this one.

Residential parking permit program.

If you could um give us kind of an overview of the program and um some particulars about how it's how it's managed certainly.

So I think the best way to start on this topic is to actually read the purpose for it right out of the uh the ordinance.

It says the city council of the city of Allentown considers it to be in the interest of the citizens of the city of Allentown to provide for the establishment of a residential permit parking program in order to alleviate the hardship experienced by residents in obtaining on-street parking spaces to preserve the residential quality of neighborhoods and to provide for improvement in air quality.

Uh the powers and duties as contained in this article shall be performed uh by the parking authority.

Uh so just right off the bat out of that purpose, it gives you the three main reasons for why RPP exists.

It's number one to help residents be able to find parking on the street where they reside.

It's also to make sure that outside forces don't impinge upon that and make it increasingly difficult for residents to find a space.

And then the air quality, I'm taking a guess on that one.

We don't want people continually driving around the block trying to find a space.

So by keeping spaces open, it stops people from circling blocks and creating greenhouse gases.

So when you read through that ordinance, all the directions, all the criteria, all the things that go into that are set for us.

We simply administer it.

There's a lot more activities that happen downtown, a lot more events that draw in folks from outside of the city.

And oftentimes we found that they end up bleeding off into the residential neighborhoods that surround downtown.

And that makes it difficult for a resident to find a parking space.

So the RPP program helps to alleviate that.

It doesn't guarantee someone a spot, but what it does is it allows the parking authority to keep keep an eye on that.

As long as we're out there minding the times limits that are placed on that, it should create turnover and give people better opportunity to find parking where they live.

And keep the visitors in the parking decks where they should be.

So to have blocks that were more RPP, so that it were it's actually residents that are able to park there without having to feed the meter all the time.

Like are we looking at that?

Because I'm talking like back like 10 years ago, I would come up here and complain and someone, your predecessor said, Oh, yeah, we're gonna look at it, and here we are.

Okay, so one thing just to make clear that the RPP program, although the parking authority is to administer it, it really is resident driven.

So to understand how that program is set down and is intended to work, just in a general sense, council, not this council, but council at some time passed, divided up certain areas of the city and name the street boundaries and then designate them as RPP zones.

From that point forward, it is incumbent upon the residents living in those zones to request RPP.

When they do that, then the parking authority is tasked with coming in and using the standards that are set in the ordinance itself to determine whether they qualify or not.

To answer your question, Ms.

Gurloch, I think there can be some discretion in there.

I'm familiar with the block you're talking about.

Um I don't see why we couldn't look at it, but it's not a program where the parking authority comes along and determines which block is going to be RPP and which isn't.

That's all triggered by resident petition.

Um along the same lines, if a particular block doesn't want the RPP anymore, that's resident driven.

Um if there is like an extreme case where it just obviously doesn't work or it anything along those lines, I think we probably could exercise some latitude to look into that and see if if it could be addressed.

Uh but the main thing with RPP is it it's not it's not an APA program, this is an ordinance, and we we have to administer it the way it's written.

Um so that's not to say that we can't be reasonable and look at some things moving forward.

So hypothetically, if a resident if residents decide they want their block to be RPP, they'll come to the APA, you will do a study, and then you'll bring it to council, because ultimately council will be will determine if that will become an RPP block or not.

You're almost there.

Almost there.

So the residents of the, I believe it's the 100 block of North 12th Street recently did this.

Uh they reached out, they submitted their petition to us.

Um they did call the parking authority first, and we gave them all the directions on what you need to do.

They filled out the petition, we did the survey.

Once it's done and we determine that they meet the requirements, we make a recommendation to public works.

Okay.

Who then I believe they bring it to council to say, listen, this block's put a petition in, they meet the criteria per the APA.

I believe then council passes that and the signs go up to make that uh a residential parking block.

You were close.

Okay.

Um your question, was your question answered?

I believe so.

I just um now this we're going back to Marling, I think was around.

Is that the name?

Uh Tamara Dolan.

Yeah, well, Dolan?

Yes.

Yeah, Dolan.

I just remember a dolan.

And it I wondered maybe if we need to update our ordinance to really specify what that kind of study looks like, because depending on what time of the day one comes around, you get one feel for how much like turnover there is versus another time, and that's what happened on the 900 block at Walnut, the time that they came.

It looked like it was one thing, but in reality it was something else.

So yeah, the other factor that often gets um not overlooked, but it it's it's a big impact is it's the street level frontage.

So you may have a lot of people living on a block in a house, but the first floor is a business, so it doesn't get counted as a residence because of the street level frontage, which I think also may have played into the scenario you're talking about.

So I don't disagree with you.

I I think a lot of our ordinances need some tweaking.

They're not bad ordinances, it's just they they're a little outdated in some places.

So all right, cool.

Yeah, good.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Uh Mr.

Pung.

Sure.

Thank you.

Um I think this is more to the entire council.

Maybe I'm I just I'm definitely gonna brush up on the RPP ordinance itself, but I guess I'm just curious about any of the specific requirements once the program is in place.

Are there limitations to how many people in a certain household can get permits, or is it just anyone who can prove residency in a block?

How is that kind of administered?

That's one of the challenges because the ordinance provides no limit.

So it tasks the authority with proving, or I should say asking the applicant to prove two things.

They have to prove vehicle ownership, which we usually use like a vehicle registration and a driver's license to make sure, or a photo ID to make sure that the person is the person we're talking to.

The second part is establishing residency.

So that could be a lease, a mortgage.

I think we've looked at maybe like utility bills in the past and and some other things.

So as long as you can prove those two things, we're obligated to sell you a permit.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Uh Mr.

Brinder, go ahead.

Uh what's the cost for the permit?

Uh presently, if you're a first-time uh purchaser, it's $25 for the first year.

And then when you renew each year, it's $20 for each subsequent year.

And is there a scale change based on how many vehicles are permitted for the same location, or is it all 20?

Okay.

Yeah, the ordinance states the price in there.

So and then when the permits are given, I understand that the ordinance doesn't limit the the amount, but is the study include how many um residential units there would be and how many expected permits would be applicable based on spots, or is it just there's there's no limit in there.

If if a person meets the criteria, we have to sell them the permit.

And then during the permit process for that area, is every resident notified and how are they notified of the availability?

They're notified by mail.

Um, we'll pull down what we can to figure out who's living where there's resources in the city that help us with that.

Uh and then we'll mail them all a letter.

And if we'll also go out and try to put it on every door in the mailbox if we can get to it.

Okay, and my my last one, sorry.

Uh is I I lived in in areas that had this similar uh system, and I guess my question is has a study been or is there a plan to do any study that looks at density a little bit more larger, not block by block, but based on a specific area to look at rolling out a more I don't want to say citywide, but just density-based um parking permit program.

So I know that the city of Lancaster PA has recently done such a study.

Uh you can visit their website and look at the results on there.

Um we don't have any study currently going on here.

Uh, but RPP is certainly a part of the the ordinances that we're looking at uh to freshen up and maybe see what we can do to make them serve the residents better.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay.

Um if you don't mind, if you can send you sending us a meter study, if you can send um the results from Lancaster, it would be helpful just for for us to share and and review what other other cities are doing regarding um RPP.

Okay.

So moving along, um we're gonna number six is uh 24-7 implementation.

So this um I believe this question is about the nighttime enforcement going restarting that with um safety violations.

If you want to speak about how that happened and and how it's being administered, okay.

So 24-7 uh was initially in place, and along about March or so of 2024, 2023, uh it was backed off to just uh answering calls from the public and responding to certain private lots and our own lots uh for enforcement.

Um we've since returned to actual 24-7 proactive patrol, and the reason for that was uh the most driving factor was it it shifted the burden of patrol to the public.

Uh the APA was no longer out looking for uh those types of quality of life and safety issues and keeping them addressed, and it it put the burden on the public to wake up at two, three, four in the morning and call in the vehicle that was on the corner uh so that we could come out and address it.

Um that's really shouldn't be how it should be done.

We we should be out there proactively looking for those kinds of things.

Um the reason being is it's safety, and and when 24-7 was reinstituted, it was relegated to only those types of violations, uh safety violations, which would be like no parking zones or fire hydrants, uh double parking or parking too close to a corner.

Um our officers will still respond to dispatch calls uh during those times, um, as well as you know, our own lots and our commitments to other uh off-street lots.

This type of enforcement also is in line with the city's vision zero program.

Uh it's very important to try to keep those site lines open on corners, uh, which a lot of violations occur in.

It also even trickles down to quality of life issues like the garbage truck being able to make the turn to get down and make a garbage pickup uh or emergency service vehicles being able to get where they need to go.

Uh so all those efforts go into overnight enforcement, and it's it's a more focused enforcement on those particular issues.

Uh of course, we're not doing any kind of meter enforcement at night, it's beyond the hours for that kind of thing, and uh we keep things like inspections and registrations for during the daytime hours.

We're not looking for those at night.

Uh the idea is to try to make sure that we're taking care of those safety issues.

Uh the only overnight we we do beyond that is there is a street cleaning run that happens to be downtown that starts at 3 a.m.

Okay.

Um any questions or comment?

Uh Ms.

Atha.

So we're back to the 24-7 enforcement.

Yes, ma'am.

When did we stop that uh reinforced it in 2027?

Did you say?

I believe it was in that 2020.

Around March or April of 2023 that it was suspended.

And then it was brought back in.

I'll have to look.

I want to say it's in 2024.

So 2024, so it was only too because I know uh I've got a lot of calls.

Let me check on that.

This January.

January of 24.

January of 2020?

2024.

2024 was reinstituted.

Because I the reason we we put that in there is because a lot of the residents were complaining they uh uh that enforcement was done at four or five o'clock, and through the night, people be parking in, like you said, in front of a fire hydrogen or whatever.

And then uh when they halted that, we also got a lot of complaints that um they wanted it back in.

You know, there were half half wanted it in, somebody wanted out.

But I think it's a good idea because uh on a Sunday afternoon, I would get a complaint from someone, and we'd have to call for that one or two people that you had a skeleton crew to go out.

So having this uh when you implement these things, and we okay, it it's I want people to know it's because we get a lot of phone calls.

We try to do with the with this because citizens want, they want it 24 seven.

So uh I'm glad it's it's back in again because for the safety issues, you know, parking uh by the curb, uh close to an intersection, fire hydrant.

There were so many complaints on a Sunday, uh, especially in an alley where people couldn't get out of their garage because somebody was sparked in the alley.

So um it's good that that's back in.

Thank you.

I'll add to that you know, there was another driving factor that that pushed the APA towards its current 24-7 operation, and that was the closure of the comm center.

Uh it was the closure of the comm center, if you recall.

Uh Allentown's Comm Center closed, and all dispatching moved out to Lehigh County.

Uh Lehigh County was only going to dispatch for fire police and EMS, they were not going to touch parking.

Uh so that was the real driver as to why that burden fell to the parking authority to develop a 24-7 response program and a dispatch office to be able to take those calls.

And if you recall from what I said earlier last year, 17,866 calls uh from the public requesting enforcement for whatever the issue was.

Um, any chance you have any data um for calls at night or on holidays?

Um be able to parse.

I mean, I'm sorry I didn't give it, I didn't put that request in earlier, but I'm just curious if you have any data.

I believe I do, yes.

Not with me tonight, but that's fair.

If you can send that, I'm I guess we're making a list of lists here.

Yeah, so um, I'm just curious, uh, especially on holidays.

You know, we hear about the parking authority being out, you know, on some days, and I I'd like to know the calls for service, you know, if possible, that could maybe correlate to those those visits that are out there.

Um Ms.

Grolock.

Yeah, that's the question I had, and if it could be uh like disaggregated by geographical region, center city, west end, south side, east side, that would be helpful too.

Okay, um Mr.

Bender.

So a couple questions, and um this is related kind of a 24-7 uh enforcement.

Uh should I wait till you finish?

Sorry.

Oh, go ahead.

Okay, what a so um I'll I will be very clear that like one of my frustrations is always he's curb painting, and I'll I'll I'll die on that cross.

But um one of the things I see frequently, even just around where I live, uh people come home from second shift, and I can I can tell they're right on the margin of where they're going to be ticketed, and it's because it's the only spot left they've gone around, and and it's it's this happens day in and day out, and I understand what the ordinance is and I understand what the law is.

And I guess the question in lieu of right now being able to have signage, uh, because I understand that's the enforcement line, or even having painting.

How do you feel or what have you considered APA maybe able to do to help from an educational perspective of saying, okay, we know uh cement sidewalk is five feet wide, so this is 15.

That's what that looks like, or you know, take into consideration where the corner is and take into consideration this when you're looking at that, because I mean it's one of the things where it's just I see it every day, and and it's just people coming home from work and they just they're it's it's it's late at night, all the parking's gone, and that's the one that seemed like it fit.

So in cases like that, we will use discretion as best as we can.

Um you're absolutely right.

The most most blocks are governed by that 15-foot uh clearance on on each corner.

Um obviously that's meant for sight lines for people to be able to see and make safe turns uh on the roadway.

Uh generally the parking authority, uh, if you're a foot or two over, we're not gonna write you a ticket for that.

Uh if you're approaching halfway into it, maybe you'll get a warning.

Um you could be receive a ticket as well, depending upon how egregious it is into that.

But we're not we're not out there writing tickets for people that are a foot or two over that 15-foot clearance in those cases.

Yeah, I think and I appreciate that, but I think where I'm looking at from a and I could say sitting up here right now, I don't know if the foot's at the bumper, if it's at the back tire.

I like I and I would imagine most people don't know what the actual law states.

So given the frequency that I see even on the blocks around my house being ticket ticketed daily on this, how could we better educate uh the public on what that looks like since we don't have clear visual understanding of where those lines are?

So I mean, some of the tools we have, uh we have a very robust social media network, we can put things out that way.

Um I was hoping a question like this would come up because I'm gonna plug it because it's a very good thing for the city to hear.

Uh the APA provides something called code red, uh, which allows residents to sign up and receive alerts.

Uh it's free to sign up, it doesn't cost you anything, uh, gives the the applicant the ability to select what kind of alerts that they want to receive.

Uh and that's a method we could use too to push out some information uh to learn about a particular topic and then direct them to either uh a social media site or a YouTube channel or even our website alone uh to help get that education out there.

Um I believe there's a question on that coming down the road, and I was excited to to throw that out there, but I'm doing it now.

Code red, get on code red.

Okay.

I mean it it would be that's I think that's a great initiative.

And I also say, like, I think having that, even if it's this is the how-to video or something where if you get a ticket, maybe, and I don't want to keep cramming stuff on the tickets, but maybe if that it was you know there was a link to or QR code or whatever to be able to say, here's here's how you can better educate where those lines are so there isn't obscurity, because I think that that that causes a lot of frustration um for folks.

So thankfully our community relations uh specialist is in the audience.

I hope he's taking notes.

Thank you.

I I think Mr.

Peter, if the city could only find a way to paint the lines that we had years ago, if there's a bright yellow line, that's the parking authorities still by a tire here, they may not give it to us.

But I think it's so important we have none of that anymore.

And if if Allen Town can figure out a way, especially for fire hydrogen, that are very, very important, or close to the and and I think that would solve a lot of problems because we could park your car and think, well, am I close?

I don't know if I am, but parking authority has to figure it out.

And um there's got to be a way that we can paint those lines again in the city, whether we use high school kids or what whatever, but we've got to figure out something.

And as Mr.

Pender Penn, how do we do, you know, how do we figure out how close we well, that's very easy if we paint the lines, exactly.

That then there's no excuse, and it's easier for the parking authority also.

One thing the parking authority does do, uh, we we do have an event staff.

Um, those are some part-time folks that work for us under a manager, and and they're the ones that meet you at the deck for the hockey game or the concert you're going to.

Um, and they work for us throughout, you know, basically the concert season uh at the different venues in town.

During the summer months, there's not a lot of that happening.

Uh so per request, uh our staff goes out and works under the direction of the public works department, and they give us an area, and our guys go out and do what we can to paint curbs.

Uh, we've done it for the past, I think, four summers in a row, uh, trying to do what we can to help with that as well.

It's not a mandate that the parking authority has to do.

We don't typically paint curbs as part of our service, but hey, it's something I can do to give you know our part-time folks more full-time part-time work, if that makes sense.

Uh, and it it helps the city, you know, because that's that is a monumental task trying to keep curbs painted all around town.

Although I have seen some new ones out there, so yeah, it just amazed me at 30 years ago.

They're every block had one everywhere.

What happened in those 30 years that we cannot afford to paint these lines that are crucial?

I believe they're Mr.

Bender brought it up.

And the parking authority has a problem with it.

And why is it 30 years ago we were able to afford it, but now we can't paint, can't even paint any lines.

I know on 12th and shoe, right?

If I painted my own right up front, so that that people knew where to park or whatever.

And I don't think the res that's the residents um job to do.

But uh, I think we need to, as a city, we need to look into this and and figure out uh a way we can alleviate this problem.

Definitely a topic for budget season.

Um Mr.

Pungo, go ahead.

Yeah, I just had one question related to I know you mentioned the enforcements mainly for safety enforcement uh when it's uh overnight.

But I guess my question is in the instance where you get a safety enforcement issue and maybe another potential violation is presented.

Does parking authority then also stack on any other things that are violations at that point in time, or is only the violation for safety related issues being treated at that time?

So without knowing specifically what you're what you have in mind, I can tell you so if we got a call or we were on patrol and we saw a vehicle that was in a no parking zone, let's just say, and as we're writing that ticket, we realize the person's inspection's out.

We'll leave them a warning.

That lets them know that we've seen it, here it is.

You know, maybe it missed their attention or whatever.

I mean it's happened to all of us at one point or another.

So hopefully that warning helps them to realize it and go get it corrected.

I appreciate that.

Yeah, because I was gonna say, I think sometimes, you know, it it could even just be, you know, you went to get your inspection, and then unfortunately you have to fix something, we gotta wait for your next paycheck, and then because you're in the middle of that process, now you're burdened with a ticket and trying to get it done before you know, so you can get it released.

So uh if we're issuing warnings, I think that's that's a good kind of step for that.

We also, too, when we issue a ticket for a registration, it says right on the ticket that if they get it corrected within 10 days or give us proof, we'll rescind the ticket then.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

You beat me too.

I was gonna bring that up.

I stole your thunder, didn't I?

Yeah, so um but um okay.

Sounds good.

Any other questions regarding 247?

Okay.

Oh, sorry.

Um it would be helpful to know the revenue that's been generated from going back to 24-7.

So not just the number of tickets, but how much money, additional money's been made by doing that.

Okay.

All right, uh, number seven, uh discussion of the Lehigh Valley Justice Institute study, which was performed approximately two years ago.

Um give you a second to make your notes there.

It's okay.

Um, so regarding the Lehigh Valley Justice Institute study a couple years ago that was conducted.

If you um want to speak to any of that.

Okay, I I had a chance to to look at the study.

I mean, I I've seen it before, uh admittedly it's been some time, it's it's a couple years old now.

Um I think it's very difficult to take a look at just numbers and try to paint a story.

Um or tell a story, I should say, is a better a better way to put that.

Um I can't say for certain, but I don't ever recall um that entity reaching out to the parking authority to ask for any kind of explanation about what they were pointing out in their study.

Uh there was uh a lot of information that they put in there, um, comparing Allentown to Bethlehem and Easton, uh, which I think is really not a very fair comparison.

Uh we're we're very different cities, certainly different in size.

Allentown's far larger than those two cities.

Uh we have a 24-7 operation, neither of those two uh cities have enforcement around the clock.

Um Easton doesn't even have a parking authority.

Bethlehem does, but uh so to take a look at at all three, just basically on numbers without understanding what's going on behind it.

Um I think it doesn't tell the whole story.

Um the information that I looked at there uh pointed out some things um that certain ethnicities or certain certain neighborhoods comprised of uh folks of an ethnic background are are targeted more often than others.

Um I don't think it fully takes into account the fact that there are street cleaning uh rout there.

Um those routes are set by the city uh of Allentown, the public works department decides where they go, and all we do is follow along and enforce them as we go.

Uh to claim that that's some kind of an intentional targeting of a neighborhood uh based on an income level or or an ethnicity.

I I don't know how you can do that when we're just simply following the street cleaning run.

Uh the same thing goes for the metered blocks.

Uh the Allentown parking authority does not determine where metered blocks go.

That's actually a function of city council.

Uh so to go out and enforce meters and and then have that data interpreted to be that it's it's targeting targeting a particular uh race or or ethnicity.

I don't know that that's the whole story.

You know, are what they are.

But numbers, even though they're factual may not tell the whole truth, correct?

You know, I can make the statement that a 100% of people that eat Snickers candy bars are gonna die.

That's a truthful statement.

But the numbers don't really tell the truth of that.

It paints Snickers candy bars into something that's dangerous for you to eat.

My wife may argue with me on that.

But I I think you have to be very careful when all you do is take a data set and then start extrapolating from that and drawing conclusions from it without understanding everything that goes into it.

Um as I mentioned, that I don't recall getting one question from the institute as to why one of the things that they pointed out was that there was a dramatic increase in ticketing in Allentown versus the increase or lack of increase of ticketing in Bethlehem and Easton, which was interpreted to be some kind of a targeted event by the the Allentown parking authority.

What they didn't ask was Bethlehem and Easton weren't asked to create a 24-7 operation.

We were much bigger city, a much bigger staff, and we expand hours beyond what our neighbors were.

It would make sense that you might see an increase in ticketing, which wasn't an effort to target anybody, it's the natural flow of what would happen when you do something like that.

Um other arguments in that study made it seem like there was very inconsistent enforcement across the city, again, more targeted towards particular neighborhoods and not others.

Um parts of the city change.

Uh there are no street cleaning runs on the west end of town.

Um you can go to certain parts of town, and everyone has their own driveway in their garage, and there's not even a car on the street.

What am I out there enforcing?

There's nothing there to enforce, whereas you go into more densely populated areas of the city, there's more cars, there's more traffic, there's naturally going to be uh a larger amount of tickets issued in that area.

Statistics would tell you that.

So in just looking at the the study and and pointing, you know, taking a look at a couple of those things.

While I don't dispute the numbers, the numbers are accurate.

I don't think that they told the whole story of what really is going on and why.

Um Ms.

African.

I agree with uh what do you said about the uh uh different parts of town?

I drive from 40th and to 4th Street several times a week, and I have never seen a double parker on 25th and Allen or 30th now.

It it or close to the curve, or we hardly even see any of the cars.

So I can see why most of the enforcement is within the city, and that's where most of the violations are because it's more populated and a hell of a lot more cars.

Uh you can drive all the way from Allen from 30th all the way, and you barely even see cars park from the side.

So I understand your point with um, and people may say, well, you're you're targeting the inner city people.

Well, this is where the this is where most of the cars are.

This is where the violations are.

Um I I understand your point about the patrolling.

Um Ms.

Garlock.

Um, so I'd be curious, and it kind of jumps ahead to another question.

Um, back when this study was conducted, it found that the highest number of tickets were not for double parking, not for meters, not for safety violations, but for inspections.

Um is that would you say that's still and then if we look at um neighborhoods where there would be a higher population of folks that don't have an up-to-date inspection, they would be lower-income neighborhoods.

Um is that still the highest number of tickets, would you say um 2026 or 2025?

Um usually inspections are are fairly high.

They're usually in the top five, I would say.

So to answer your question, yeah, inspections are are very frequently ticketed.

Would you be able to speak to how that addresses the main concern for the parking authority, which is public safety and the hydrant and the curbs and all that?

Uh could you rephrase that?

Yeah, so I've heard the parking authority talk about how their main issue is, you know, turnover at the metered spots, and then we just talked about 24-7 enforcement, how the main issue is public safety, so that you know there's not as many car accidents, and people can see uh have a good visual when they're turning out into a street.

Would could you help me understand how ticketing folks for not having up-to-date inspections is helping that effort?

Well, I mean, obviously the state has those regulations in place so that hopefully everyone's keeping their vehicle in a safe uh functional uh condition uh by writing those tickets, we're we're hoping to get compliance so people will be able to get their vehicles inspected.

Um oftentimes we find, and it's not in every case, uh, mind you.

Um lots of times when someone doesn't have their inspection uh done, we find they don't have their registration done either.

And oftentimes we'll find that maybe the registration is would have been valid, but there's an insurance lapse.

Uh so all of those things kind of go in together to make sure that people are when they're driving on the street, have a properly insured vehicle, have a properly registered vehicle, and have a safe functioning vehicle.

Okay.

Um, and then my my next question is maybe just a point of clarification on that study.

So I found an article from WDIY.

Um, and I just wanted to make sure my understanding of the study is correct.

So from when I read the study, I saw that they didn't necessarily um uncover uh like a causation, they just found a correlation and two different things.

So I I don't recall reading where it said, you know, parking authority is like targeting people.

Um those of us who live in Allentown can have our opinions, but I didn't find that in the study, it was more so just saying that there is a correlation.

It I I didn't find any accusatory language in there, but maybe I misread.

Okay.

Yeah, thank you.

Um I just want to quickly ask, um, I've been reading articles from neighboring municipalities about fraudulent inspections.

Do you have any data on I don't know what the number is of inspection violations you write?

Is there a percentage?

And again, you can get this to us later if you don't have it with you, um, of what the for fraudulent inspections, these are inspection stickers that are fraudulent.

And can you speak to that?

Uh certainly, yeah.

We we've definitely seen an uptick in that, as you mentioned, even neighboring uh cities, Salisbury and and others around their police departments have actually put posts out.

Uh I've seen numerous alerts coming out uh from law enforcement agencies watching for the the increase in these uh fraudulent stickers.

I think I just saw an article the other day, someone got pulled over and had like 250 of them in their car uh that they were going to you would presume sell to somebody.

Uh for us, I I think it's around let me get your real number before I guess.

That's fair.

It's definitely in the thousands, well into the thousands that we've done.

These are fraudulent fraudulent stickers.

Okay.

Because I think that that's part of the story.

I mean, if you know what what that percentage is, because fraudulent inspections, I mean, that's to me that's there's no excuse for that.

And uh very last question.

If my inspection runs out in June, is there a grace period for inspection violations?

Uh yes, there is.

Uh we will generally give someone a the the following month.

So for instance, if your sticker ran out in June and sometime in July we came across your car, we would write you a warning.

Once it goes beyond that month, then we would begin to issue a ticket for the expired inspection.

Okay.

Um let's oh good, Mr.

Bender first.

Um does uh parking authority also ticket for registrations that have expired or lapsed?

Yes.

Okay.

And then do you know, and I know you probably don't know this number off the top of your head, but percentage of accredited parking authorities that ticket for inspection and registration versus don't within Pennsylvania.

I don't know that one off the top of my head.

Okay.

I didn't expect you to, but I'm just if I it'd be great to know that.

Oh, yeah, I don't know that one off.

I I think I know how I can find out, but okay.

All right, thanks.

Add it to the list.

It's gonna be a long list.

Just a quick question on the uh grace period.

Um most of a lot of times the uh Allentown police department are the ones, in fact, I got caught a couple couple times by the police department.

Do they have the same grace period?

Is this a uh a state thing, or is it just your thing or is grace period?

Would you know the answer to that?

I don't know.

Um I know it's an it's something the downtown parking authority does.

I think you'd have to ask ABD what their policy is on that.

Yeah, okay, thanks.

Yeah, that happened a couple years ago.

I was on the board at the time, and we instituted policies um for for instance, Mr.

Haney brought up registration.

So if if someone's registration was just you forgot about it and you received a violation, as long as you remedy the vi the registration, you go online to pen dot, you pay $36, and um provide proof, then they would rescind the violation.

That was a board initiative, I think a couple years ago that we instituted.

Um because ultimately we're just looking for compliance.

And uh so um, so anyway, so that's one of the things that came from the board a couple years ago.

Um so next one number eight.

Um we have summary of parking tickets by reason given.

Um we we don't have enough time here tonight to go through all of that.

Uh I could definitely produce a report and share with with all of you.

That's a tremendous amount of data to produce and share here.

So that's what I was looking for a report because I remember it it's comprehensive because I've done right to knows and it's long.

It's yeah, okay, so then you know it's a rather large over that.

Just uh over uh uh 30,000 foot.

I mean, are there what are the the main violations?

I mean, I know you probably have a top five.

Um, and I know we can't get in the weeds, but if you can add that to the list, I know a couple of us were looking for that.

Okay, but this very um general on your frequent flyer violations if if you could just speak to a couple of your f of the most the the violations you probably write the most.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Mr.

Chamber, I didn't realize you were asking me that.

Uh so uh off the top of my head, street cleaning is generally one that's fairly high.

Uh meters, inspections, um, no parking violations.

Uh those would definitely be in the top violations that we issue.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Not sure what we're gonna fit this in, but I want to make sure it's discussed.

The internal appeals process when folks get a violation.

Can you just briefly just make sure everyone understands how that process works?

This was a board initiative a couple years ago.

Certainly.

So um if anyone gets a parking ticket, they they have a right to appeal.

Um they can come to the parking authority.

I believe they can do it online or even go over the phone and call it in and ask for an appeal, give us the reason why uh that a person believes the ticket they received was incorrect.

Uh we may ask for some you know corroborating information to help us make that determination.

Uh, but we get those, we'll we'll give them uh a look through and then get an answer back to the person.

Uh when they do ask for a review on a ticket, it does freeze the ticket price, so it's not going to escalate um while they're waiting for us to get an answer back to them.

Sometimes it does take some time to get to you know an answer with this.

Um good example of that, you know, out on 1600 Gordon.

We we've unfortunately frequently get repeals from there for street cleaning tickets because someone comes, parks on the street and goes in for a doctor's appointment and ends up being hospitalized or something along those lines.

So until whatever issue is addressed, and they can bring us some documentation showing that it could take some time.

So that's why the the tickets freeze uh in price whenever they're put in for an appeal, and then we'll get them an answer back.

Do you have any any data on how many appeals you get?

I know you used to um let me used to share those at board meetings.

I'm not sure if you still track that by month.

I think I did bring that with me.

Let me make a quick look as to where I might have put it.

Or we can come back to if you if you don't mind me fumbling through the my papers here.

Oh, I do, it's right here.

Um so I brought with me uh just results from 2025.

Um in the year we took 3,049 appeals.

Um of those appeals, 1,505 of them were determined to be valid tickets that folks were no, you know, notified they needed to pay them.

Uh 1,544 of them uh were either dismissed or reduced to a warning.

Um and that broke down came to 12% were dismissed because we found an error with the ticket, or there was information provided from the appellant uh that gave us good cause to uh dismiss the ticket.

Uh 39% were reduced to a warning.

Uh so those could be anything from it really was a valid ticket, but maybe it was the person's first time.

Um we have this issue occasionally with our mobile payment where someone will come in, they'll pay and don't realize that they they use the license plate from their other car.

So they'll come in, make an appeal, show us, hey, I paid, no problem, we'll we'll get rid of those and or we'll reduce them to a warning and say, you know, appreciate that you paid, thank you, but you know, you really do need to make sure you get the right uh plate in there, that kind of a thing.

So that's the breakdown for for 2025.

Okay.

So approximately 50 per 50-50 almost 50, yeah, give or take.

All right, uh Mr.

Bitter, go ahead.

Just to follow up on the um appeal process.

Yes.

If someone and I I know because I've I've appealed tickets and lost in that process, but you do a very good job of giving the actual legislation or the ordinance code.

Um, if someone feels that they still should want to take that to the magistrate, does is the ticket still could you walk us through the process?

Because I know it's it's what I'm not sure about is is the ticket price frozen?

Does it then turn into if they lose something larger?

Like could you walk through that process?

So yeah, certainly during our appeals process, we can freeze that fine uh at whatever amount it is when it comes in.

Once it goes from our hands over into it, would be the next step will be a magisterial district justice uh hearing.

Um once it goes from us into the state system, we have no control over that.

The price will escalate to its full penalty, and the MDJ's office has authority to assess fees uh for the hearing and things of that nature.

So we can control it while it's for lack of a better term, in our house, once it goes out of our house, we we have no control over the prices then.

And just if we're gonna take and you might not know this number, so I'm just kind of ballpark, just high level.

If it's say a street speed violation and um appeal it, then take to magistrate full district.

What is the max for that?

I'm just using that as an example if you know it.

So I'm trying, I believe a street cleaning ticket is $35, it will escalate to I think 70.

Um, and there may be another step after that.

The MDJs, and don't quote me, I believe their fees are somewhere around $60.

Okay.

Um, some you know, depending upon the case, I've seen uh justices waive that.

Uh I've seen them hold it, you know.

People also, you know, win at court and they're they're found not guilty and don't have to pay anything.

So and then just following up on that, do you know roughly, and I'm not gonna quote you on these numbers either, but the amount of times that um tickets are being appealed to a magistrative district that are successful or um or not.

I do not have that data.

Okay.

I I have some percentages, but it would be flawed to try to guess from what those are.

Okay.

Just curious, didn't want to put you on the spot that's uh Ms.

Garlock.

Um so I got a ticket in Bethlehem, and I appealed it.

I ended up going into a courtroom, a woman, I forget the judge's name, but we never even most people never even saw the judge because the parking authority, we sat in the little room and we had like a mediation kind of thing, and I sat right near the door, and most people their ticket was put back to the original payment.

They had a little square and you paid it right then and there, saved the judge time, say well, still took a long time to get through, but it saved uh the customers' time from going to court and paying court fees and whatnot.

Who would need to initiate that sort of process?

And has that been explored?

Yeah, honestly, with you, I mean, I I would have to run that through our solicitor.

I don't know what legislative process there is in Bethel.

Um, I'm just not familiar with it.

Uh, it's certainly something I can run through our solicitor and see if there's any direction or guidelines he can give or even research what what Bethlehem might be doing.

Um our efforts with our appeals are to try to keep people from having to get to that level.

Yeah, um, that was also the hope of the payment plan too.

Yeah.

If you pay it with us, it's generally going to be a lot cheaper than it will be when you have to get to that level.

Right.

And and then I'm just thinking from a revenue side, the parking authority would still make out the same because even if someone goes to court, that additional cost that they're paying, they're paying to the court system, not to the parking authority.

Correct.

So you would still make as much money.

Um I mean, the only way you wouldn't is if the person doing the mediation decided.

I mean, again, I was sitting near that door.

Most of those tickets were taken back down to like a lower level.

So I guess in that sense, you would might you might be losing some revenue.

But it wouldn't necessarily have to go that way.

Um just seems like it would maybe save some time for the co for the parking authority.

I'm sure whoever gets assigned to go to the court on those park authority days doesn't enjoy that.

Um and then I'm sure the judge doesn't enjoy parking authority days, so why not just have a little room and have people work it out?

Certainly something to look into.

I never heard that.

That's a it's interesting.

Um you know, but I think to your point, I mean the board realized that we had to do something, and there were too many parking tickets going to courts.

So the the internal appeals process was a a mechanism to try and keep more of them out of court.

And we found that folks were using the courts as payment plans.

So that's why we you know instituted the internal payment plan because once it makes it to the court, you're paying more anyway.

But I like you know that it's interesting what Bethlehem's doing regarding that.

So um thank you.

And we're gonna move along.

Uh one thing Mr.

Haney that comes up a lot is street cleaning.

So if you could speak to all things street cleaning, uh including any updates or modifications over the years, um fill us in.

Okay.

Um not a hundred percent sure what you're looking for there, but uh the street cleaning programs there to obviously help keep the city streets clean.

Um I am not aware of any changes pending.

Um I don't know of any that I'm I would be looking at uh suggesting.

Um could do a little explaining about uh what we do.

The Allentown parking authorities tasked with aiding uh the street cleaner as they go about their route.

Uh we will generally follow behind uh the street cleaner as they go around and follow their routes, and if they go around a car, then we'll issue a ticket to that vehicle for impeding the street cleaner from doing its job.

Um just some uh scenarios off the top of my head.

Uh I can think of uh there are occasions where you know maybe the street cleaner loses sight of us.

Maybe they went around a couple of cars and our officers having difficulty getting a ticket out for whatever reason or had to change ticket roll, and they may get ahead of us a little bit, and somebody will come by and park behind the sweeper, even though they've already gone past that point.

Um I've seen some cases, you know, where people have gotten tickets for that.

Um, hence we have the appeal process.

Uh we can go through and look at that and see what we can do to help them out.

Uh generally, uh according to the ordinance itself, uh, people are not supposed to park on the street cleaning route during the posted times, um, with one exception, after the streets already been cleaned, then you can park there.

Um so we we have run into that scenario on occasion.

Um we've tried to do the best we can to I'll say up our game.

Um, our community relations specialist um as well as our particularly our code red uh program tries to do our best to get information out to the public if there's anything affecting street cleaning.

Uh had a lot of that with the white stuff.

I'm not gonna say the name uh that we dealt with here in town.

Uh, but trying to get that information out to people to know if there's been a suspension of a street cleaning route or if there's a delay or something along those lines, or if the route has been canceled, what day it might restart.

Uh so just that is just a a huge issue with with residents in the city that if they take advantage of our code red program, you'll know ahead of time, uh, as best as we know when street cleaning runs are shut down.

Um it really is we we do deal a lot with this.

Well, a lot of folks in the town think that we run that program.

Uh Allentown parking authority does not run the street cleaning pro, those are not our our employees in those vehicles.

Uh the sweepers are manned by the public works department.

Uh our job is simply to follow along and enforce.

So if we could encourage folks to get on that code red system to be able to relieve the or receive those alerts when we send them out, uh that would be great.

Uh, I've seen a lot of people that ended up rolling the dice because they didn't think it was gonna happen, and the street cleaner was just late, didn't come through at the normal time they they came and they end up with a ticket.

So that would be something I think would be incredibly beneficial for for residents if they could take advantage of that program that we offer.

But the parking authority came through first to make sure that all the cars were removed, and if not, they got ticketed.

And for some reason, now they're coming after they have cleaned, which I really don't understand.

I've been in a situation, they've had constituents here complaining that you know parking is tough to begin with, and they see the parking that they have cleaned it, they get in their cars, they park, and they get a ticket.

I don't understand why the tickets are issued and why the parking authority comes after they're cleaned.

Uh and also with businesses, uh, for instance, Damascus.

Uh I feel sorry for them because cleaning is uh from 12 to 3, and this is their busiest time.

I've been there many times when um I was ready to park this.

Oh, the parking authority already came through, so I could park there.

But now I don't know because the parking what can you explain why the parking authority gets ticket or or patrols after they're cleaned or as opposed to in the beginning?

Absolutely.

There's there's two good reasons for that.

Good.

I'm gonna the first one primarily has to do with our our MDJs, or what?

Our magisterial district justices.

So if I just show up and your car is on a cleaning route and I take a picture of it, even though the signs are there, uh, we had found that oftentimes we're questioned how do I know the street cleaner was there?

Where is it in the picture?

So if an officer shows up to a car that's parked on the street where it shouldn't be, and the street cleaners behind us, we take the picture of the vehicle, the judges say, where's the street cleaner?

He didn't even go around the car.

How could you write him a ticket?

And they throw them out.

Well, that makes sense before the cleaners.

So when we wait for this the street cleaner to go around the car that hasn't moved, and we document that the the violation has occurred, and the vehicle did indeed impede the sweeper from cleaning the street, that makes for for better enforcement.

The second reason, I can't afford tires anymore.

Driving ahead of the street cleaners, I was changing tires on our vehicles left and right from nails and bolts and everything else that the street cleaner then picks up.

So it made more sense for us from an operational standpoint to follow behind so that we're not suffering all the flat tires and and maintenance costs.

Well, these the cleaners, the street are they having the same problem?

I couldn't tell you.

Okay, I don't know.

Um I'm sorry, Mr.

Haney, but they don't make sense to me.

You just said it made more sense to me uh in the past when they became the idea was for them to move.

The idea was to give a ticket for somebody that didn't pay attention to the to the time.

But once they're through, once they've cleaned the streets and having such we have such a problem with parking now, why uh a constituent can't park then after it's all done.

They're gonna get a ticket, and this has happened because they've been up here in the podium saying they've gotten tickets after the fact.

And um I I would think that is one of the things the parking authority could be a little lenient with.

Um they could aside from your tires and things like that.

I mean, that's like what is it, three hours?

Is it it's three hours, isn't it?

Three hours or to two hours.

What is it?

Two or three hours?

Yeah, that's a lot of time that you you've gone through now.

This resident has to wait.

You went through it say at nine o'clock, and now it's uh 11 o'clock, and this person still can't park there.

I I think maybe we have to find a way that we can be more um bend a little more for the citizens in in this situation.

Um the tire thing doesn't fly with me, I'm sorry.

But I'm I think it's more of a it's more of an issue for people getting parking tickets, and they live in the city, they know it's hard to live in the city, they know the parking is hard, they try to obey all the rules, but when they've cleaned the street, the parking authorities already through.

I see no reason why they can't park.

And and I think there's got to be a way we can go back to the way it used to be, where you got a ticket in the beginning before the they came to street clean street.

Once the street is cleaned, I see no reason why the constituents can't come back and park in there in the spot.

I'm hoping that the parking authority could find um a way to alleviate that problem.

Well, they they can repark.

Maybe you missed when I mentioned that earlier, but the way the ordinance reads is once the streen Well says you can't park on the street between the posted hours until the street is cleaned.

Until they cleaned.

So if if street cleaning is posted between 12 and 3 and the street cleaner comes through at 12 30, once they've left, people can repark on the block.

But it hasn't happened.

We were here when constituents uh came up here and especially one showed us the ticket and showed us actually a video of at was it the first time she had been parked, had had been doing it several times, but this particular time she could not understand why she got a ticket after.

And I think I spoke to you about it.

I may have called you personally and spoke to you about it.

So are you telling me this is a commonplace thing that's happening a lot, or is this a once in a rarity kind of scenario?

No, but we've had more than one person, I know more than one person came up and had got a ticket for going into uh no the cleaning that they after they left, uh, and a substantial time.

I think one was like a half hour and parked there and still got a ticket.

It was more than one person that came up.

So if you feel if there's any way you could get me that information, I'll look into it.

But that's not what the ordinance says.

The ordinance is very clear.

Well, you can't park there until the street has been cleaned.

Once it's cleaned, you can repark.

I mean, we have people that pull across the street, wait for us to go by, and then they repark.

It happens all the like every day.

That's what she said.

She said, I don't understand it.

They don't get a ticket for it.

I know the person who 12th and 12th and two.

Okay.

She brought the ticket, and I told her to fight it, and I think she won.

But um it if it were just one incident, I could see, and the reason was the parking authority came after the cleaning was done and gave her the ticket.

Not just one instant, there were several.

I think there were like two or three people that complained about it.

Not and and I've had a few complaints personally that have called me about it.

And I believe the one on 12th and two, I I I thought I'd talk to you about it personally.

Um I think your answer at that time was it's a posted sign.

The sign is posted so many hours, which means they can't park there for so many hours.

And I remember discussing with you, it didn't make sense.

Okay, if you could get me that, I I would love to look at it because that's not I could tell you who it is.

Maybe after we're done.

Yeah, after we're done.

I can give you the name and the address and everything.

Uh she was here about a month ago.

That was at least one one I remember.

So I'm just wondering if um uh if this does occur, uh the person could fight this ticket.

I mean, come to parking authority, and um the the ticket will be uh dismissed, correct?

Well, well absolutely, I mean that's what the appeal process is for to give us the scenario so we can look at it and see what could be done.

I'm glad that we're here and that that people can hear this personally that yes, they can park after the street cleaners have okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um Mr.

Brender, go ahead.

Yeah, so this question came out um to public works as a result of uh conversations we were having during drinks this the snow removal or snow, whatever it's called process.

But the um question I had was what would what options are there for APA to potentially in more of a real-time mapping show the position of street sweeping, not position of all where AP is all the time, but basically for people who maybe are taking care of of someone in their house, who have kids and that kind of stuff that could say, okay, I could open this map up, I can see they're two blocks away, I'm gonna run out and then I'm gonna move, so I'm making sure I'm there.

We started the conversation looking at the street sweeps, but I just wanted to find out if the technologies are ready in your application versus I that might not be in their application yet.

So it's just to see would that be an option that you're aware of.

The the technology is definitely out there.

It would have to be something installed on the city's vehicles, I would think.

Yeah, I mean, we were out on an APA vehicle.

What I was trying to look at is this I'm not sure we can do it with the street sweeps yet, but I didn't know if the technology was there for the APA because they're kind of close to each other when it's happening.

Um so if someone was looking at it, I just didn't know if it was natively a part of the app that you have right now.

Yeah, the the difficulty there would be, I mean you would have no idea what what that is.

In other words, so there's a lot of APA vehicles out there driving around, and they could be going in street cleaning areas to call that they've been sent to.

Yeah.

How would a resident know which of these is which?

Yeah, it was more specific saying we'd only show the ones that are currently doing street sweeping, not everything that like there's no need to show all that other stuff.

It's just would be for that.

That yeah, and that would be so.

I mean, it's not like it's not a native part of your application.

Well, and it's it's not we don't have a specific vehicle that follows it.

I mean, it could be any number of vehicles assigned for that day.

So you're okay.

All right, I think we'll push that back to I think that's that's a good point.

I think I would I would suggest maybe um vice president Mota chairs public works.

That could be a good conversation to have in the public works committee about to to Mr.

Haney's point.

Um the APA has a lot of different vehicles, but the city only has street sweepers.

Maybe it's more applicable to put them on street sweepers, you know, because they're not doing other things like his vehicles are.

So that would be a good conversation.

I think it's a great, it's a great idea.

Um I know years ago, and I don't I mean, maybe Mr.

Glazer knows you you've been around.

Um the snow plows back in the day had the same kind of concept where you could see where the snow plows were going, and um, so I don't know if it's go ahead and city vehicles city contracts with a company called SAM SAR, and this device that's in the vehicles provides GPS amongst its other things.

So I think the information may be there for the sweep sweepers, and I think Mr.

Amy is correct, is that uh this is a city issue because you really want to know what the street sweeper is.

Um if you've got the hardware there, the question is whether it supports the software extension uh to a Mac or some other application.

Um, there's certainly the stories religion where people call up and say my street hasn't been filed and public works will say no, they went by their 20 minutes.

So I think some of the technology is okay.

I think um I would again I would speak with uh um chair uh chairmodo, and I think it's a great conversation to have.

Um so just quick, I can kind of resonate with something that Kendita said as far as I I remember growing up on 9th and Tillman.

I I v I always remember seeing the parking authority pass by first before the streeper.

I can understand you know the maintenance issue and it and if that's something that significantly impacts the car.

So I guess my my question and my concern would be if the gap between the sweeper and the enforcement vehicle is growing.

What can we do to, you know, either is that like a city process we need to you know look at public works and say, hey, we can't go this far, or you know, what what can we do to just close that gap so you know folks aren't thinking like, okay, it's it's in the clear, it's been 10 minutes, but in reality, parking you know, authority is four blocks away and making their way over.

And then, you know, as the time progresses, the lines of the sweeper get dimmer, and then it I can imagine it gets harder to enforce that as well.

So uh I just I think it's an undue burden to expect you know, folks have to fight that if there's a way that we can kind of mitigate it by just how we're proceeding with enforcement.

Yeah, I think a lot of that is just communication between us and the the sweeper drivers or the sweeper department.

Uh we have a pretty good relationship with them, so that's something we can certainly take up.

Thank you.

Um Ms.

Garlock.

One last thing on this, yeah, because um we definitely so the sweepers I've seen uh when the parking authority is a bit behind, they just wait.

They wait for the parking authority to catch up.

It's not like ro rocket science, they just wait for them to come and then they begin their sweeping again.

Um I do re there is some sort of miscommunication be because we did have residents come here and express their concern over the tickets they they received.

And I know I've seen social media posts that say that it's enforced the entire time, not just you know, um until the the street is cleaned.

And that freaked people out.

Um that yeah, yeah.

I don't I'm not gonna go through and find a screenshot, but like I've seen that, and I think people saw that and freaked out.

Um, but you're saying by ordinance it's once it's I'll I'll read it to you right here.

No, no, I I believe you, but um I just make maybe communicating that to folks because it seems as though people were under the impression that now there's gonna be this attempt to just ticket people who are parking there the whole any time between 12 to 3 or whatever that that time frame is.

And it seems like that's happened.

Yeah, I mean we we've only ever sent our officers out to escort the sweeper.

That's it.

We we don't patrol those routes unless you're following behind a street cleaner who's who's out there doing their work.

So I maybe there was an outlier, uh trainee or something that made a wrong turn or something.

I don't know.

I that's why I would like to find out this this scenario and see if I can look into it, but that's certainly not uh what we would normally be doing out there.

Okay, I think to Miss Gerlach's point, um we'll talk about communication number 14.

So um that's something that I think there definitely needs to be some conversation on on that aspect.

Um we're good on street cleaning.

Uh number 10.

Um says here contract.

Is there an updated contract between the city and APA?

There is no contract that I'm aware of.

Okay.

Okay.

Um the reason I asked that is because aren't we supposed to be getting money from the parking authority?

And wouldn't that be stipulated in the contract?

And the last contract I saw was old, like 90s, like cell phone, like flip phone kind of thing.

Okay.

10 and 12 will kind of put together.

So um funds given to the city.

Um, if you can speak to that.

Okay, so well, just to uh address that that question that Ms.

Gerlock had, the Allentown Parking Authority is not a division of the city, right?

We're we're an independent state authority.

That's the problem.

Uh we're created by a state uh legislation, it's actually title 53, chapter 55.

It's named the parking authorities act.

Uh so we exist as an entity separate from the city.

Now, in that legislation, it talks about uh a parking authority being a we're not a not-for-profit organization.

So at the end of a fiscal year, if we have excess revenues above and beyond what we're budgeted, we we can turn those over to the city.

Um to get to Mr.

Um Napoli's other point, the funds given to the city.

Um of the other things that the parking authority does for the city is we we carry significant debt load that would otherwise be on the city and the residents through taxation.

Um in 2025, the authority was carrying a $56 million debt load.

In 2026, we're carrying a $57 million debt load.

Um not having that on the city's books directly contributes to the the bond rating the city enjoys, and that's kind of part of what we do for the city is we we take that off the shoulders of the residents and we deal with that.

Um parking structures are incredibly expensive uh buildings, they take a lot of revenue to maintain and build, hence uh those large numbers that I just shared with you.

So in that sense, that's our contribution to the city.

There are other things that we do through when there's different city events, there's no charge for signage that we put up and loss of meter revenue due to whatever city event may be taking place.

Um those things tally up, and we do track them.

Uh there was roughly give or take about $10,000 per year that's donated, I'll say in kind to the city for those kinds of efforts.

Um but man, I mean, if if I could get to a point where I was able to give my debt service payments to the city instead of the bank, I would love to get there.

Uh 57 million dollars away from that.

So if you don't mind, Ms.

Garlack, um, I want to lean on our controller because he's you know let me thank you, Mr.

President.

Let me address both um the funds given to the city and contracts.

Um city and the parking authority are bound by multitude of contracts, whether it be for the administration government deck or some of the other decks.

Um ordinance, because a lot of what the parking authority does is really enforces city ordinance.

So there's a lot of there's a lot of things there.

Um in my reading, none of it specifies the caveat.

Um the parking authority gives the city money.

Um it has been a topic of discussion.

Um city councils and also certainly parking authority meetings.

I I think uh parking authority management is well aware of that, and that includes things like the residential parking permits, includes things like you know um drop-off delivery, it includes things like valet parking.

We need to do these things all at once so that everything is consistent and easily enforceable uh throughout as far as giving the city money, um the parking authority manages one lot for the city uh on 9th Street.

That um we we pay management fee, we get the difference.

We've got to pay the um uh the property taxes on it.

Personally, I like to make it go away.

But um there had been a time, I have to go back and find the agreement where there was a revenue sharing agreement when the police wrote tickets and turned them over to the parking authority to process that part of that revenue would come back to the city.

And we audited this I don't know, 2019 and 2018, and we found out that um administratively uh the police were very, very, very, very slow to turn in their tickets, so they couldn't be processed, and that there was some interpretation on the parking authorities point that um imposed some higher fees than were probably fair.

Mr.

Morgan was the chairman at that point or the executive director, and he saw that and he said, Well, I'm writing a check for 75,000 dollars and I'm done with it, and after that, and this is my own personal opinion the police didn't seem to be interested in taking the time to write a double parking ticket or write any of those other kinds of tickets that might be safety related.

So that's well out of the hands of um of the parking authority.

I think if the city feels that it's a priority to um manage double parking better or manage some of the other safety violations better, then this becomes a conversation between city council and the mayor and the chief is to how policemen are going to spend their time, you know, when they're out on the beat.

Um, and you know, if they're willing to put the effort into writing tickets, then I think given the technology has certainly uh advanced more over the last five or six years, uh there can certainly be some kind of efficient revenue sharing.

You know, we're not talking hundreds of thousands of dollars, but there could be something to come back for it.

Beyond that, the only money that's changed hands, and correct me if I'm wrong, is the uh parking authority bought salt winter salt from the city last year for $585.

That's about it.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Glazer, for some of that background.

Um, so regarding number 10 and 12, any questions or comments?

Um do you want to do another point before I went to Mr.

Glazer?

Yeah, I mean, I'm just I wonder if there is any um any reason to update that antiquated contract, because I think that's where I read about that revenue, maybe that shared source or as I said, I think that's really discussion between you guys and the mayor and the police chief.

Okay, because I I don't I just quit Googled, and this could be incorrect information because I'm reading about Lancaster's parking authority, and it states that 90% of citation revenue is paid to the city of Lancaster.

So it'd be interesting to see do other cities get revenue from their parking authorities, and if they do, we had conversations not that long ago about our budget and and finding different revenue sources.

Perhaps this is one, if especially if other cities have been able to find a way to do it.

I think it's worth looking into.

I think we have to look at every situation differently.

I mean, is Lancaster paying for their parking tax in the city of Lancaster?

And if you know, if that's the case, and then makes you know, I don't know.

I don't know the answer to that, but um, you know, we uh I would like to if we're gonna talk about that, I would love to kind of kind of what um Ms.

Ortega and Mr.

Hanlon did for the budget, you know, they went and looked at other cities and how they do their budgets, and let's maybe can do that same exercise on parking to see some of the differences.

Um who's paying for who's paying for the the parking decks because ultimately that's who needs a revenue to to pay that debt load.

Um so uh okay, so we're good there, Ms.

Um ask Mr.

Haney something.

I when I was on a parking authority that was on for 13 years, is going back maybe 15 years ago.

Uh, we were giving a substantial amount to the city.

I remember do you remember?

I mean, you were that that could have been prior to my was that prior to you?

Uh this is what I may not have been at that level to be in the no for for that stuff.

But I thought a lot of that changed when uh I remember John Morgan mentioning when we changed to 24-7 him telling Mayor O'Connell that the amount of money given back to the city is gonna be substantially lower because of the 24-7.

Because in the beginning, uh we were Jeff, were you on the on the on there?

I wasn't mad with my council for part of this.

My recollection of this candy is that if you go back and look at the budget books, you can see there are years where the parking authority made substantial contributions to $750,000, million dollars.

It is my interpretation of that some of that had to do with real estate deals, i.e.

Hamilton.

Uh some of it had to do with whoever was mayor at the time leaning very heavily on the parking authority and squeezing them in an unhealthily financial manner because the current administration didn't want to raise taxes.

Um wasn't necessarily protection money, but and it foresold the property tax increase.

But so yeah, there's certainly years, and I've gone back and I've looked at them and um pretty sure my interpretation is just recembering uh a large contribution for coerced uh Mr.

Ponko, go ahead.

Thank you.

I I mean, just from the financial background, I think 13 years ago there wasn't a $56 million debt obligation.

I think Mr.

Haney just alluded to the fact that if you know the parking authority turns over revenue, that is then returned to the city because of its nonprofit status, correct?

It it would be if we had excess revenue.

We don't, which granted with 56 million dollars of debt, you probably wouldn't.

Yeah.

Um but I guess my question is of that $56 million debt.

You mentioned a lot of that went to parking decks.

Um, and I think we've seen a lot of the discourse over the past couple of years, a lot of residents feeling like, all right, that's fine, you have to pay these things, but it kind of feels like the community is suffering at the hands of a lot of the debt exposure that maybe downtown is seeing.

And I'm just curious, having heard a lot of that you mentioned earlier about acquiring service lots.

Has that kind of investment shifted into more community parking initiatives, or are we still just kind of focused on the decks and and as opportunities come up?

I'm just curious how are you, how are the liabilities kind of fleshing out?

Because I I I know for a fact of that 56 million, a good portion of that is probably in downtown.

But I'm curious moving forward, how do you see the parking authority um investing in community parking?

Okay, so yeah, that is definitely uh what my intent is.

Um Allentown has grown significantly in just the short time I've been here.

Um there's buildings across the street that weren't there when I started 10 years ago.

Um, of course, we're all aware of all that, and it required a lot of investment from us to keep up with that development.

Um I believe that we have sufficient parking downtown now to service all of that.

Um 85-story massive skyscraper coming in.

I I don't foresee that happening.

I think we're in good shape.

Um, so the focus for my decks now is not so much in in looking to build more of them, it's to maintain the ones I have.

They're very costly.

Um I mentioned one at 56 years old, is that takes a lot of money to keep that one taken taken care of.

And the rest of our decks are all coming around the the 15 to 20 year mark, uh, which is if they're not maintained, they're halfway through their life.

So it takes more investment to get in them.

However, I think that's all I need to do downtown.

It's the neighborhoods that that need to help, hence our investment in the Ridge Av property to get it kicked off.

Um I don't want to put words in mouth, but there's there's several board members in this room.

They know we've looked at a number of different properties.

Um we developed the seventh and Allen lot on the 500 block of North Seventh.

That was in a hopes to help curb the double parking, help the businesses in that area.

And the challenge that you get into when you develop these surface lots.

And I'll try to be as accurate as I can be.

The ridge to have property is going to cost the authority somewhere in the neighborhood of around 200,000.

It's going to create 24 off street spaces.

At the price point that the permits will go for on that lot, it's going to take the authority roughly 20 years to see penny one of positive revenue from that investment.

Making deals like that frequently doesn't ever return the revenue back to be to keep going.

So it does make it a little challenging.

If we ever get to the point that that lot sees penny one of revenue.

So it's challenging to do, it's not impossible.

There's opportunities out there.

We try to look to see where we can find those.

Develop them into off-street parking.

So we can offer permits that are affordable.

I can't build a lot and charge people $300 to park on it.

It'll sit there empty.

That just doesn't fit what people can afford.

So that's the challenge moving forward.

I I don't think I need to look at any more significant investment downtown.

The focus for me is the neighborhoods where the parking's needed the most to help alleviate you know the crunch that people are dealing with with trying to find parking.

So they don't have to come home at night and and face trying to squeeze in on the end of the corner and cross their fingers and hope that you know it's not the time they get a ticket.

So hopefully that answers your question.

Yeah, it does.

And I think it also served as just to highlight the differences maybe of the past and just the significant investment the authority has seen over time and just kind of reassuring the community that you know we're trying to do what's possible to help them out too.

So thank you.

You're welcome.

Um thank you.

And uh I'm gonna quickly add to Mr.

Pungo's point.

You know, one we have we always have to look at things holistically, and and yes, there's a lot of debt on downtown parking decks.

I get it, but it those decks attracted a lot of economic development that does contribute to our tax or tax base.

Um I'll give you example.

When I started when I first started parking in the community deck, I was on the second floor every day.

A thousand, there were a thousand spaces in that parking deck, and I was on the second floor for probably a year, and then because of that deck being there, tower six came.

Then I was in the third or fourth floor, then a bunch of apartments came, five, I think the old Crock Rock and a couple other places.

Now I'm on the sixth floor, and all those all that economic development that that contributes to our tax base came because there was parking.

So those decks do serve a purpose, and I know sometimes residents or or folks on the outside are like, hey, that's not doesn't benefit me.

But I do want to you know mention that it does because that that economic development that brings higher tax payments does help keep taxes stable for the rest of the city.

And um, I don't have you know pinpoint data on it, but it's there, and um it doesn't hurt because when you take a parcel out downtown that's paying X and you build a tower, and now it's X times 50, there's there's something there.

So um so that parking capacity, I think is beneficial and attracting development and ultimately helping our tax base.

There's something there to that.

Um I add to that.

Yep.

Mr.

Knockley, you hit it right on the head.

And and because you and I both were on the board for several years.

We understand it's a business.

It is a business of trying to alleviate the problem of parking in the city.

It's not an easy job.

But what Mr.

Knoppaly uh said is so true.

Without the parking authority and the business that they do, we would not have a development we have right now.

Nothing happens in this city for the development, it has to go through the parking authority.

It's all about parking.

And I understand it's a necessary evil.

Uh it isn't necessary.

We need the parking authority, we need that that structure.

But when they spend the money and buy property to put uh surface lots in in different areas, they're doing it to alleviate parking problems.

But what Mr.

Nopali was was talking about was the fact that because of the parking authority and the business they're in, they this is why we have a development.

This is what the tax base he was talking about.

All of that, it's not just about parking tickets, it's about their business and try to understand.

And if more people would come to their meetings and listen to their meetings.

No one comes.

It's advertised, and it would be great because I learned I didn't know the first thing about the parking authority until I got on the board.

And the same thing I'm sure with with Mr.

Nopali.

But if you're there and you listen to the process, the business, the board, and what's going on, you see a whole different light of what the parking authority is about.

And like I said, it's a necessary evil.

But in the meantime, they do a lot for our city.

When they're put they care about the parking and um there, yes, there's glitches here and there, there's problems, whatever.

But all in all, we need the parking authority.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh, we're gonna move to number 11.

Um, we have a summary of parking tickets by risk by reason given.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Uh it's it is deeply given sorry.

Um didn't catch that.

Uh number 13, uh siren program for double parkers.

If you can let everyone know, kind of how what happened with that and where we are now.

Okay.

Um, so uh we still have the sirens in the vehicles and and they are still used to alert people that there's an issue and and maybe they can move along.

Uh the hope was is that instead of writing tickets, if we sounded a siren and flash lights, the people would move on and understand, oh, I I shouldn't be here.

Um it didn't turn out to be incredibly effective at getting the compliance that we were looking for.

Um we found a lot of people, a few particularly double parkers.

Um you sound the siren and flash the lights, they put it in gear and drive around the block and come right back and double park.

Uh so it didn't really do much to generate the compliance that we would look for.

Uh that doesn't mean that we still don't use the sirens in on occasion when when it makes sense to do so.

Um we still don't just drive up and write a ticket on somebody if they're double parked.

We do try to see if someone's in the car, see if there's a reason for it.

Perhaps someone's unloading groceries or or doing something along those lines.

Um, so the siren program is still there, it's just not used in the in the fashion it was previously.

Um anything on siren double parking.

Okay.

Um, next up is we kind of alluded to this a couple times, but communication with the community.

Um, can you help everyone understand what initiatives you're working on and what emphasis you're doing you're putting on upgrading communication?

Absolutely.

Uh so first and foremost, uh, we hired a community relations specialist, his name is Louis Rivera.

Um Lewis came to us with a lot of skills in social media, and is from the neighborhoods in Allentown, so he's familiar with with uh everything out there.

And just to give uh a little bit of a list of the different things that the Allentown Parking Authority is doing to try to get out and and get in touch with the community and share information, share knowledge, answer questions and do those kinds of things.

Um this is on a yearly basis.

The parking authority uh participates in backpack giveaways for the beginning of the school season.

Uh we do that at Sheridan Elementary and the Allentown School District back the school bash that occurs at the Cedar Beach Park.

Uh we show up there, Lewis with a big smile on his face, and we hand out various school supplies to the students coming by.

Uh we participate every year in the mayor's Easter egg hunt where we're there speaking with folks from the community, handing out um eggs and candy and whatever else to um do the children that come up there.

Um Lewis, to his credit, started a program called Ask the APA, uh, where we we will at random times go out on Hamilton Street.

Uh, we've been out there a couple of times and set up our canopy and put out a table full of information and answer questions to passers by that happen to come through.

Um he's done the same thing up on North 7th Street, uh right at 7th and Allen.

Um he's been to, I believe the Allentown Library two or three times.

Um, they were very happy with that program and invited us back to do that continually.

We took part with the Christmas tree lighting.

There was a large gathering there at the Arts Park.

Same thing.

Lewis was out there engaging with the public and sharing information.

We attend various neighborhood meetings, the cohesion meeting that occurs on, I think it's every other Thursday at Sheridan Elementary.

We also attend the Franklin Park meeting that I think is the opposite Thursday of the Cohesion one.

And once a month we're invited out to the West End Alliance community meeting where Lewis goes and engages with the public, answers questions and provides information to them.

Last year in 2025, during uh the appropriate weather, we attended the mayor's block party three times in three locations around town where various city agencies and departments come together to speak with residents of the block in a neighborhood and again share information and make connections.

Where we work with uh that organization to donate coats to those who show up and might be in need and could take advantage of those kinds of things.

Uh the parking authority will be participating in Earth Day with the City of Allentown this year.

Uh we've participated as well in APD's night out.

Uh we've been several years in a row participating in the trunk or treat uh events to hand out candy to the kids and uh have a good time uh celebrating that.

Yearly, the parking authority puts on what we call International Parking Day, uh, which is basically a charitable drive at our office where we turn our parking spaces into a park like setting and have various activities going on with some food, fun, and games.

Um we solicit raffles items from local businesses and donations from sponsorships, and all the proceeds and donations go to benefit um Ripple Community, uh, the Allentown Ecumenical Ecumenical Food Bank, that's a tough word.

Uh the Sixth Street Shelter and the Allentown Rescue Mission, those are all uh organizations that benefit uh solely from those activities.

Um besides that, uh Lewis is incredibly involved and engaged in social media posting, trying to share information with the public and generate some conversation and answer questions to get out some of those things that we spoke about earlier.

Um code red is definitely something that we're using to try to engage with the community and get information out to them.

And beyond that, Lewis has at times went out and just gone door to door, business to business, talking to people and developing those relationships.

So he's been a busy guy.

Uh, we've definitely seen a lot of positivity from that.

Uh there's been quite a few people that have had their perceptions of us changed simply through getting out there and having some dialogue with people and answering their questions and and helping them understand some of the things that we do and correcting a few misunderstandings along the way.

So it is our intent to continue those types of activities and add some more.

I I don't know if Lewis is rolling his eyes behind me.

He's a busy guy.

Uh, but we're we're trying to do that and get out and and get involved and get engaged with the community.

And that gives you an idea of what we're what we're trying to do.

Okay, thank you.

Um any feedback regarding communications from the parking authority to the public.

Uh yes, he did.

Uh the neighborhood meetings, yes.

Um, or if I say if you know of any others that you think we should be looking at to get involved in, certainly let me know.

Um we'll try to get out and do what we can.

Okay.

Um go ahead and just wanted to, and I know uh Councilperson Affa mentioned this with the board meetings, but um all of the detailed information about the finances as well as question and answer um plugging it.

It's on the fourth Wednesday at noon at this what is it called?

The it's the lyric lyric.

Thank you.

The word lyric was escaping me.

Um, but so that that is definitely that is open to the public, um, provides everyone the ability to um ask questions and and see the full complete um information about uh finances.

So plug that.

Um one thing I'll mention too is you know, in the past, uh one you know, a board initiative was having parking forums at in the evening to accommodate residents who uh couldn't make it to our board meeting to uh at noon.

Unfortunately, the last couple have not been attended at all.

So I thought this year it would be better to roll it into a city council meeting where um we can definitely have more of a conversation about parking and and everything to do with parking.

So um that's something that we've tried in the past, unfortunately it didn't it didn't stick, but um I think this actually worked out better.

Um go ahead, Miss Kerlock.

Yeah, I was just thinking um, you know how in the past there's been issues with like people in line at Stuk Kitchens, food banks and schools uh getting tickets.

Do we does the parking authority proactively go out to those spots and just kind of form relationship with those providers?

That's definitely something that's on my radar.

Um I understand the nature of when you have an event like that, you know, it may not always lend to available parking for the poke the folks coming to that.

So we know of a couple of locations where this is an issue, um, and that's certainly something I I want to get out and talk to them, the organizers.

It's usually a church, it's not always a church, but we find those happen to be a lot of those places where this is happening.

And just to talk to them and understand if we can get them on a schedule, if we could get them to the point where they would communicate with us or with the city about when they're gonna do something along those lines.

We could work with public works and maybe have a better plan set up for how to deal with all those cars instead of they just show up and they're all illegally parked, and neighbors are calling the parking authority outraged and they want us to go ticket them, and it really does put us in a bad position.

So I I think you're right.

I think it's a communication issue.

If we can speak with them and help them understand that there's there's ways to go about doing these things that the city will work with them, they are the parking authority can work with them to help their events take place and not be a burden uh to the neighborhood, or at least find ways to to give them options to do it differently so that it doesn't result in uh phone calls coming into our dispatch area, you know, from people who can't get out of their driveway, or they can't get down their street to get to their house because there's illegal parking uh taking place.

So that that's definitely something I'm looking into.

Okay, for a while.

I think she had a good point.

It's almost like community policing.

Uh, when I own Candidas, there was a woman that was always the one that was around and knew when I was bringing my liquor order in, uh, she knew that I thought and it like I said, it's almost like community policing.

She knew who I was, she knew what I had to do.

Uh if I had my blinkers on, it was okay.

She passed it because she knows a liquor order.

And I think Miss Gerlock's uh point was a good one that uh if we could have certain people that are always in that neighborhood that get to know the parking, get to know the people and so on and so forth.

Like an elderly woman whose son has to come and help her with the groceries, and she just can bypass that because she knows who they are.

And I think that would be a great thing.

I know it's not easy, it may not be able to be implemented, but it's it's a great idea.

This communication is always the best way, especially in neighborhoods where you know there's a lot of people, a lot of cars, uh, a lot of situations, elderly people, whatever.

And if you have a person that's in that area that knows the people, it makes a big difference.

Yeah, definitely all in agreement on that.

Um if it's okay with you, we're down to the last one.

Um, we're gonna talk about your board composition uh the parking authority board.

If you could speak to uh all things board related.

Um so all right, makeup of our board.

Uh our board is appointed by the mayor.

Um our board members serve in five-year terms that that expire every other or every year, so that there's there's usually turnover or at least an opportunity for turnover if that happens.

Um currently, right now, uh we we have I think I saw a question in there about location of our board members' residence.

We have one that lives, I'll say on the edge of center city, and three others that live more in the western end of town.

Uh we currently have an open board position.

Um I know there's been some some movement on considering um lightening the uh requirements for board membership.

Um I think that's a good thing.

Um I think the requirement of the AEDC involvement really did limit the number of candidates that were were even eligible to serve on the the APA board.

Um so I think if council moves forward with that, it'll it'll serve us well, give us an opportunity to maybe have another resident who's a merchant or uh restaurantur or something along those lines that can bring that aspect to our board.

Um it's not my decision that rests with with with the mayor, so we'll see what happens there.

Um are there any other questions along those lines?

I think that's about it, but uh any questions or comments on the board?

Um I'm working against my own, but I'm very tired, but I have a question.

Um the uh community person that was Yamalette, and then it was Elizabeth Martinez.

Is it still Miss Elizabeth Martinez?

Or okay, all right, and then if we pass this uh ordinance, this amendment, then there would potentially be another resident or restaurant.

Well, it would have to be a resident, so it board members must reside in the city, but it it strips that requirement that that position has to be a member of the AEDC.

It basically becomes another member at large.

And the question I had put on here is uh so you said like the edge of center city, but no one that necessarily like lives on the block with meters and street cleaning and a high volume of tickets.

Is there anyone on the board that I don't believe so has there has anyone ever sat down with Yama Let to figure out like I know she had some issues that when she was on the board representing the community?

Has anyone ever sat down with her to really to really troubleshoot that to see like own they take some ownership and see like did we mess up?

Like, did we do something that made her not feel welcome, not feel valued, um, like do some self-reflection or I have talked to Yanalette many times, not about that.

Um we maintain a good relationship, the two of us.

So if she texts me, I I text her back, and but never I've never inquired about that.

Yeah, I think that might be helpful for more because if we're saying, especially what I have found, um, is a lot of times uh boards and authorities they'll they'll want someone there to represent, say the Latino community or the center city community, and then you're just there as like a token, but you really don't have like a voice, um, and that you're just constantly being pushed back against for every single thing because you might have a different perspective because you maybe come from a different perspective, but you're one of nine.

Um, so to really help people not just be there as the token, but actually have some power and be feel empowered.

It seems like maybe that doesn't always happen, not just with the parking authority board, boards in general.

That seems to be what happens.

So I it would be maybe helpful to do some of that, like self-analysis and reflection and really dive in and hear some things you might not want to hear.

Um I'll add in quickly.

I I served with Yamalette, and um I'll say it, I I think she would agree.

You know, she was my buddy.

We we did a lot of things together on that board.

I I can't speak for her and everything how she felt.

One of her big frustrations was things took time, and I think that's hard for people, you know, in our in our personal lives or the business world, you know, we just get things done.

And then in municipal things just tend to move a little slower.

And so, like we worked in a payment plan together, probably took nine months, a year, and it was frustrating.

And I know I I can say that she was very frustrated by how slow that process was going through all these different checkpoints.

So um, again, I don't want to speak for her, she's not here, and and she can speak for herself, but um I remember some of the frustration being just not being able to get things done quickly, and uh that was really upsetting to her.

But um, we did we did get it through.

The payment plan went through, which was a big deal.

I think she was part of the internal appeals too, uh, which was a big initiative.

So I mean, we got some good stuff done, but it just unfortunately took time.

But um, so um, we are through the lift, and um listen, I first I I want to I want to really thank my colleagues.

You guys killed it tonight.

Parking is uh is a word that you know it it can be a trigger for some.

It's it's an issue that you know does bring you know, you know, a lot of opinions.

You guys asked a lot of great questions.

You guys made a lot of amazing comments, and I think for the executive director of the parking authority to hear all that, it was an opportunity for us to really have that conversation.

So I'm I sincerely want to thank you guys for stepping up, taking the time.

It's been two and a half hours.

I get it, but I think this was really beneficial for Mr.

Haney to hear what we're thinking and to hear what our concerns are.

And um, and I'm anxious to see that list.

I'm not expecting it tomorrow morning.

So just but at some point, um, if you can get us, you know, some of those answers, and then we can share it with my colleagues.

Um, it's something that's important.

And I think it's a conversation that we can continue throughout the year, but this was a big step.

So again, thank you to my colleagues, thank you to Mr.

Haney.

Um, I will open this up to the members of the public who have any um comments or questions regarding parking, so we'll move to that phase.

Uh, Mr.

Hanlin, um, you have some cards.

Uh H A D.

Good evening.

Hi.

Um, I don't know how much time we have.

Uh, so thank you again for doing this.

Uh, my name is AJ Nee.

I'm a resident of old Allentown, uh, the 12 interner.

I spoke at a previous meeting about uh my previous employment as a parking enforcement officer with the APA.

I'm no longer affiliated with them, but um I have a newfound respect for the work that they do and everything that I did working there was about safety.

Um tonight I wanted to share what led me to becoming an officer while I went on that journey as a as a resident of Allentown.

Um first I've just always been a city person, and uh I I've loved living in urban areas, but there are complications with that.

Growing up, I watched far too many of my favorite buildings and places get torn down for parking, and I saw parking really play a huge role in the changing of my city.

So to that end, I kind of grew up uh a foe of parking authorities uh in a lot of ways.

Um but then in in 2022, I had a close family friend who was killed while walking the street with her dog.

Um, and she was actually killed by a friend of hers who just couldn't see her because a car was parked illegally too close to that crosswalk.

Um that really hit me personally.

Um understanding that uh, you know, safety safety in parking has a lot of issues.

Um a lot of people think parking close to that corner is just about, you know, I don't know, whatever, some sort of traffic thing, but but it is a safety issue for people in our neighborhoods.

And then lastly, a few months after that, um, I know those dates because it affected me personally.

We went down that disastrous path of ending 24 hour enforcement.

Um, as a city resident, it was chaos.

Um, I'm glad to hear, I don't know who mentioned it, that it put the burden on the residents.

Uh I felt that personally every single day.

I was not able to get into or out of my house because people knew they could park and there would be no enforcement.

And so every single day for eight months, it was eight months, and I shouldn't say every single day.

Most days for eight months, I had to call the parking authority.

Um, and sometimes at some point I was told that I they couldn't have a car towed unless I was trying to get out of my house, but not into my house or something like that.

Eventually I just started parking in the garages downtown and and walking or taking the bus home because it was so frustrating.

So thank you again for uh bringing back 24 hour enforcement.

That was a very frustrating year.

But I was right there with um with all my other uh residents here being frustrated.

I left that wondering what the heck the parking authority was doing.

And uh I I didn't want to just get here and complain.

I decided to sign up to be an officer to see what the heck they were teaching.

And uh, and what I what I learned was that every day the parking authority tries really hard to solve these really complicated issues.

And I also learned that as an officer, it was a real great way to reach the community.

And my favorite tickets to write were actually those warning tickets for for uh for uh inspections, because you could tell people like, oh yeah, you don't get a ticket, just take care of this now.

We're here.

This is the top of it says this is not a ticket, and I love that.

Um, I also loved explaining, you know, how rates are based on demand and a lot of you mentioned the beat um uh council personal, a lot of uh blocks where I was regularly seeing an issue.

I would just remind them, you know, we're writing tickets here because every spot's full and the meter rates are here and they're set here because we need to uh turn over these vehicles and your vehicles here every day.

But if you just park around the corner, I'll never write your ticket.

And so I've had a couple uh uh business owners or regular regular business people just go to a place around the corner and help them.

Um so I I just wanted to mention uh there's a lot I could talk about, but we're in a short time.

Uh I've gone down that journey of working with APA and living in the city and seeing what they do every day, and I do think a lot of the problems we're facing here come down to communications and the way we communicate them.

And I look forward to updating a lot of these ordinances to really bring our city into a holistic approach to um parking and balancing the need between downtown and residents because those parking structures are empty at night.

Um I found it was really nice to park in the structures and just take a bus or walk home.

So it's a lot a lot to consider, but thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Um I have to give my name again.

Um, first of all, about the meetings.

And CC, I think you can vouch for this.

When we used to go to the meetings, we'd have to wait out in the lobby until they were done their meeting, and then we could come in and give public comment, which was not right.

And I think you pulled out the sunshine law and they finally were forced to let us into the meetings.

But I remember the meetings that we had at the uh what was it?

The big ones at night, they were well attended until like maybe the last one.

The last couple.

But I mean, if you could do something like this, bring the whole board in here and let us ask them questions.

I mean, that would at night, so that a lot of us can get here, and that might ease some of that.

Also, when we were driving in here, I was amazed at the amount of apartment buildings going up in the downtown, and they don't have parking decks.

So I know you're you're Mr.

Haney, you're telling us that you're buying uh properties to make more parking.

I think it's more to city council to say you can't put that development here unless you've got your own parking deck and you're gonna take care of your residents because I'm looking, these aren't even finished yet.

What is parking gonna be like when all these apartments are filled?

I mean, it's a nightmare now that trying to park downtown.

So I mean, I think a lot of it's gonna have to come on the developers, you make them have to put in their own or or do something, and then you figure you have an apartment.

What if there's four adults living there who all work and all have a car?

If you give them a parking deck with one space, that's not gonna work either.

So, you know, the development is great, but it's kind of going a little bit overboard with the apartments.

Um that's just my in my um humble opinion.

And I wanted to ask aren't inspection and registration violations the state violation, right?

It's a state violation.

The state and local ordinance here in Allentown.

Okay, does part of that money from the tickets go to the state?

No.

Why?

Because it's not issued as a state violation.

Our our tickets are issued under local ordinance.

If I were to write a ticket through a state violation, then yes, some of the money would go to the state.

If they wrote so there's two ways, you can write it as a state violation, or you can write it under the local ordinance because Allentown has home rule.

So if they write a local ordinance about parking, it takes it out of the state and it stays here in the city.

Okay.

But what you were saying about how does that affect the safety?

I'm kind of the same mind.

I don't see how it affects safety.

But anyway, uh a quick thing about the 72-hour rule.

Do the owners of the cars get a warning that your car is not moved in 72 hours, you have 20, you give them like a a ticket, not a ticket, but a warning that you have 24 hours to move this car, or it's gonna be towed, or do you just come in and boot them?

There's a warning place on the vehicle.

So the owner knows that they're being timed and they need to.

I wondered about that because once they get that boot, they're responsible for that fee.

Um, and you said uh not you, but on your site it says one of the biggest expenses is employee salaries and benefits, and that's why I'm wondering is it really cost productive to do the 24-7 again with the amount of benefits and and employee costs?

Well, I mean, in most organizations, that's gonna be your number one cost.

So, yeah, I mean, to meet the service needs of the city for for that enforcement, we we have to have them.

Okay, so it was really a big improvement to go back to 24-7 because I remember when we were fighting you guys like four years ago, that was one of the big things 24-7.

They got a quota, they have to go out there and like go to the hinterlands and make you know, find tickets, find things to enforce.

So I'm just wondering, is it cost productive to go back to that?

I believe uh council person asked me to to look at that and give a report on the increase.

So that well, that will tell us.

Okay, all right, good.

Um more thing, I let him answer questions.

You gotta give me more time.

Um, as far as the money that you give to the city or the lack thereof, um, do you pay city property taxes on the properties you own?

I know we pay real estate taxes on transactions for property.

I know we pay stormwater fees.

We are a tax-exempt organization.

You're considered tax exempt.

Yes, because we're a nonprofit, so and we're a municipal government operation, but I'll have to check on that.

But I'll have to check on that.

I know you were right when you said that they did give a significant amount of money in the past.

And I did a lot of research on that, and I know that's true.

And I'm wondering, I think this last year there was 480 dollars budgeted from you guys, and uh Mr.

Glazier said it was for salt.

You bought salt from the city because you can get it cheaper from the city.

So that meant there was zero dollars going.

Um but according to what is this the ordinance, I guess to collect on behalf of the city of Allentown and to pay the city of Allentown revenue in excess of, and then it goes through all the costs, and down here it says um a reasonable allowance for maintenance facilities and debt service.

So is there a reason this is why when I had spoke to counsel about this before, I brought up the city of Reading, and Reading is the fourth largest city next to Allentown, Allentown's the third.

Reading is the fourth, they've got significant debt.

They just uh revisited their contract last year where they were giving 1.7 million to the city and they revised it down to 1.25.

So the 550-1,000 could go directly to their debt reduction.

So I don't understand how other cities are able to do this, but we don't get a penny from the parking authority.

So this might just be me not being that's right.

Yeah, you have to look at each city.

I don't know what Reading's finances are.

I don't know what they're doing.

Well, they're 20 million in debt, and they do have parking decks.

They just put up a what is it, the double tree deck, they just build a new one.

So they have the same kind of debts as Allentown.

Allentown's a wee bit bigger, 30,000 people bigger, but you're talking about the third largest city and the fourth largest city, and there's a big difference in what Reading does and what Allentown does.

And it seems like I hate to say it, but Miss Alpha was right.

When John Morgan came, money just went down to the city.

And it seems like you're taking the city from or you're taking the money from the taxpayers.

We should get something back.

So uh I'll uh unfortunately we're out of time, but I will say I spoke to a colleague in writing, a counterpart in Reading City Council.

They are giving more money to the city.

They're also writing many more tickets to offset that.

So there is not an unintended consequence that they're figuring they're realizing that there's no money tree.

And so that parking authority, according to my counterpart, is they're now hearing they're writing too many tickets because of that debt service to the city now.

So I'm just just putting it out there that you know it's a question I asked when I saw the same article you did, and I'm like, hey guys, what's going on?

And they're like, yeah, we're writing more tickets now.

So I'm just just putting it out there.

That's a phone call I made, and that's the answer I got.

Um, but thank you for your time.

But it's still very similar.

I mean, the cities are similar with the cities are similar, but my point is is that um for the city of Reading to get that million dollars from their parking authority, parking authority has to come up with that revenue.

Where does it come from?

They're just out writing more tickets.

Okay, I'm not sure.

And then unfortunately, I don't know if I wouldn't do I mean one personal counsel saying that.

I just I made the call and I'm like, hey, just curious about this, and that's what I that's the feedback I got.

Just being honest.

So um, but uh thank you.

That's my main thing.

Okay, appreciate it.

Thank you.

And you all did do good questions.

No, it was I was very, very impressed with my colleagues.

They did a fantastic job.

Um, any more cards, Mr.

Hanlin?

No.

Okay.

Well, that that does it.

Thanks again to everyone who participated and came.

And uh, I'm sorry, do you have courtesy of the floor?

I didn't know I had to.

Oh, okay, no problem.

Um, you know what, sir, come on up and we'll we'll take one more.

And um no worries.

Uh this this if you can give your name for the record.

Uh okay, go ahead, Ms.

Short Tees.

Um, Mr.

Kerlock have mentioned uh uh quite a few different scenarios about things being antiquated.

Now for downtown residents that here live here in center city.

Oh, I'm sorry.

For downtown residents, for downtown residents that are here that live down here in center city.

I found and I spoke with Mr.

Haney about it, I spoke with Mr.

Rivera about it.

Um some areas, RPP zones, three hours here, two hours here, you know, parking meters here, and these are all within a condensed one block area where everything is at a different level.

I was wondering if there was some way that we could look at the situation and say, okay, well, if and and another instance to just was brought up and posted on the APA, you know, the APA uh website was they have a new uh a new program where if you're two hour two hour meter, you can use your phone, extend your two hours.

So if you can extend your two hours without having to move, but yet for businesses, lunches, all this stuff for like business downtown.

If you're allowed to do that for businesses, what are we doing with a two-hour like RPP zone where we don't have any chance to like extend our time?

You know what I'm saying?

So can we, is there, you know, because like I said, some are three hours, some are two hours, some are parking meters where you gotta pay, you know, every 15 minutes for and these are residents as well.

I was wondering if there was a system that we could come up with or change it where it would be like all three-hour parking for the residents.

Maybe not maybe not so much the businesses like downtown Hamilton Street, you know, where the businesses and and the population is set for food, for drink, for you know, without using the parking decks, whatever, you know, shopping, whatever else they would like to do, but for the residents themselves, it's a little bit, you know, and I understand the RPP zone.

I understand those those things are available as well.

But I figured if we pay taxes as citizens and we pay taxes, homeown taxes, city taxes, we do all of these things.

Why weren't those why couldn't those RPP zones permits be given to the residences rather than them have to pay for them?

Where does what is that RPP money go for the permit?

Does it go to Allen Town Parking Authority or does it go to the city?

Since the city is the one who's giving out the pass.

I believe the parking authority is given the pass out, and they're also administering the program.

So I think there's some cost.

I'm guessing, Mr.

Haney, you want to I don't want to speak for you, but you're spot on.

Yeah.

Um I think they're just trying to cover their costs.

Okay.

Um, and I think $20 is um it's reasonable, yeah.

It hasn't changed, I think, in 30 years.

So if we look at everything else on this planet that's changed in 30 years, they've been at 20 for every year.

So uh I think that's yeah, but the tickets gone up to 35 apiece.

They wanted like $10 like they used to be either.

Yeah, so uh so that's that, but yeah, it's good feedback.

And um, and I'll end with this, Ms.

Short.

Tonight, my my mission tonight was to be better informed, learn more about how parking works, have the conversation.

Our next mission is to work on some of these ordinances, Ms.

Gurlach, you know, alluded to.

We need to tweak some of these, and Mr.

Haney's mentioned it.

Some of these ordinances have not been updated in a long time.

We're in 2026, they were written in 1998.

So tonight was step one, and then step two is let's start attacking some of these ordinances that that need some work.

So that's that's the plan, and um I'm I'm hoping I'm hopeful we can continue to move forward and keep making improvements in the city.

So thanks for the feedback.

You're welcome.

Yep.

So um okay.

Well, I think that does it for Cursey of Florida.

I appreciate everyone.

Have a great night.

We're gonna adjourn this meeting.