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Record of Proceedings

Parking Violations Bureau Update - Syracuse City Meeting - April 16, 2026

Public MeetingsThursday, April 16, 2026
BodySyracuse, New York
SessionPublic Meetings
DateThursday, April 16, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 20:43

Transcript — Verbatim
0:00

Let's get this part started.

0:02

Let's go.

0:03

So in addition to my colleagues that were here.

0:06

Last session, we were joined by counselors Moore.

0:09

And Hudson.

0:13

We are still here with Leah Whitmer.

0:16

But we're transitioning to the official title.

0:21

Parking Violations Bureau.

0:23

Parking Violations Bureau.

0:24

Thank you very much.

0:25

No problem.

0:26

So I don't know if you want to preface it with anything or if you think that was a complicated.

0:31

I'll just add for the counselors that just joined the packet.

0:34

I gave you page one just gives an overview of the municipal violations bureau as a whole.

0:40

And I'll point out what I'm really proud of that we are we have already done this fiscal year over 15,000 disputes.

0:48

Um with the caveat that some of those are still pending with decisions to be issued.

0:53

On the back of that is an overview of our org chart, and really our only vacancy is one of our two deputy director positions.

1:11

What this what these what is eight?

1:14

That's a break the health and sanitation violations.

1:17

I just tried to show the breakdown of what that 15,000 encompasses.

1:22

That's automated enforcement.

1:24

Automated enforcement, okay.

1:26

Yeah, if you look right up above that, the hearings, I put out the acronym.

1:32

No, no, that's okay.

1:33

Because I knew that question would come.

1:35

Yeah.

1:35

Um, page two was the BAA and a legal set out information that we covered last hearing, and that brings us to page three parking.

1:44

Um parking, the like I shared with um illegal set outs.

1:52

We rolled out the self-service portal.

1:55

Um, so people have the ability to scan and get everything on their ticket, view the evidence dispute, pick their hearing date and time, the volume of tickets has stayed on par um for the last couple of years, right under 65,000.

2:11

Um, and the dispute rate is hovering right around 10, 11%.

2:16

Um, so you can see I gave you a breakdown of you know, the tickets, what was paid, um, issued means that they're still in that 90-day period that somebody has to pay or contest before it goes into collections.

2:31

And then if you take a look at that disputed right there in the yellow, um, I gave you a breakdown of the tickets.

2:38

The majority are sustained.

2:40

Like I said, we do have a big hunk pending right now due to the influx with automated enforcement, and um there's a percentage every year that's dismissed.

2:50

Actually, a question.

2:51

Sure, about what we're seeing with the disputes, like with the uh stop sign with the school bus, right?

3:00

I've recently started like paying more attention of how our bus drivers are driving.

3:04

Sure.

3:04

And signaling people to make you, you know, saying, like, okay, what's really happened?

3:10

Are we finding a lot of people coming in or disputing the so yes?

3:16

If you flip to the last page, I just gave you a really basic overview of the dispute, the number the volume of tickets issued for each of the three programs.

3:27

And if we're looking at buses, I did the full program.

3:30

So it started in May after a 30-day warning period up through March with very little reported in March so far.

3:38

So just for school buses, just under 7,000 tickets.

3:42

Um, and it's almost a 50% dispute rate for school buses.

3:46

Um we see in like what is one of the it's really and it's not that I mean, we sustain most school bus violations.

3:55

That being said, um, they are the only ticket where you've got two driver behavior being evaluated, right?

4:02

You've got like you said, you've got the bus driver as well as the vehicle driver, and because it's automated in real time, usually the time when the two vehicles approach is like it's seconds, right?

4:16

My video length is almost always 11 seconds.

4:20

So I'm watching the whole violation occur in that period of time.

4:24

Um and so I think it's been a learning experience for everyone when I see things, or when um people bring up things, I report it back to the school district to the director of transportation and rely on the district to convey it to first student, right?

4:41

Because they're all all 213 buses with cameras are operated by first student, and so they're conveying the information to the drivers.

4:50

Um, so everything from okay, drivers, you really shouldn't be waving people on.

4:55

And when I do hearings with people, yeah, when I do it, and things like that are always gonna happen, right?

5:00

And that's why we have the dispute process.

5:03

Can we see that?

5:04

It depends.

5:05

You can see um the side mirror in the bus.

5:08

So sometimes you can see the bus driver waving it on, other times it's clear, you know, the person was coming from the rear of the bus, there's no way the driver could have waved them on.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Transportation Safety█████████████████████████████████████████████54%
Parking Management████████████████████████████████38%
Procedural███████8%
Summary of Proceedings

Parking Violations Bureau Update - Syracuse City Meeting - April 16, 2026

The Syracuse City Council met on April 16, 2026, at 6:20 PM ET to receive an update from the Parking Violations Bureau (PVB) on parking, automated enforcement programs, and illegal set outs. Director Leah Whitmer presented data and answered questions from Councilors Moore, Hudson, and others.

Discussion Items

  • Bureau Overview: Whitmer reported over 15,000 disputes processed this fiscal year (some pending). Parking ticket volume remains steady at just under 65,000 annually, with a dispute rate of 10–11%. Most disputes are sustained, but a significant number are pending due to automated enforcement influx.
  • Automated Enforcement – School Bus Cameras: Nearly 7,000 tickets issued since program launch (May 2024 through March 2026) after a 30-day warning period. Dispute rate is nearly 50%, the highest of all programs. Whitmer explained the high dispute rate is due to the involvement of both bus driver and vehicle driver behavior. The bureau reviews evidence including three videos (bird’s-eye, front, rear) and amber light timing. Instances of bus drivers waving on vehicles or failing to activate amber lights are considered, and tickets may be dismissed if the vehicle had no time to react. Whitmer reports issues to the school district for driver training.
  • Automated Enforcement – Red Light & Speed Zones: 27 of 74 red light cameras are operational. The dispute rate for red light is low. School speed zone dispute rate is under 10% but yields many hearings due to volume. Replacement of 10 school speed zone locations is in progress; installation shifted to red light cameras over winter. Whitmer anticipates more cameras coming online, increasing workload.
  • Illegal Set Outs & Self-Service Portal: The bureau launched a self-service portal for parking and illegal set outs. A new notification system (Seer Notify) allows property owners to sign up for near real-time email alerts; nearly 2,000 properties have enrolled. Questions were answered about ticket issuance (automated enforcement tickets issued by police; illegal set out tickets by DPW) and constituent services.
  • Position Staffing: The bureau has one vacancy (deputy director) and uses temporary services (budgeted for 12 positions but not fully staffed). Whitmer noted that the volume of automated enforcement disputes has increased constituent calls and walk-ins; the bureau removed its phone number from initial tickets to redirect calls to the vendor’s 1-800 number.

Key Outcomes

  • The update was received by the council. No formal votes or decisions were taken. Councilors will follow up on specific data requests (e.g., breakdown of red light tickets by location).
  • Whitmer will continue to report operational concerns to the school district and DPW. The bureau will monitor recidivism rates as automated enforcement matures.

Meeting Transcript

Let's get this part started. Let's go. So in addition to my colleagues that were here. Last session, we were joined by counselors Moore. And Hudson. We are still here with Leah Whitmer. But we're transitioning to the official title. Parking Violations Bureau. Parking Violations Bureau. Thank you very much. No problem. So I don't know if you want to preface it with anything or if you think that was a complicated. I'll just add for the counselors that just joined the packet. I gave you page one just gives an overview of the municipal violations bureau as a whole. And I'll point out what I'm really proud of that we are we have already done this fiscal year over 15,000 disputes. Um with the caveat that some of those are still pending with decisions to be issued. On the back of that is an overview of our org chart, and really our only vacancy is one of our two deputy director positions. What this what these what is eight? That's a break the health and sanitation violations. I just tried to show the breakdown of what that 15,000 encompasses. That's automated enforcement. Automated enforcement, okay. Yeah, if you look right up above that, the hearings, I put out the acronym. No, no, that's okay. Because I knew that question would come. Yeah. Um, page two was the BAA and a legal set out information that we covered last hearing, and that brings us to page three parking. Um parking, the like I shared with um illegal set outs. We rolled out the self-service portal. Um, so people have the ability to scan and get everything on their ticket, view the evidence dispute, pick their hearing date and time, the volume of tickets has stayed on par um for the last couple of years, right under 65,000. Um, and the dispute rate is hovering right around 10, 11%. Um, so you can see I gave you a breakdown of you know, the tickets, what was paid, um, issued means that they're still in that 90-day period that somebody has to pay or contest before it goes into collections. And then if you take a look at that disputed right there in the yellow, um, I gave you a breakdown of the tickets. The majority are sustained. Like I said, we do have a big hunk pending right now due to the influx with automated enforcement, and um there's a percentage every year that's dismissed. Actually, a question. Sure, about what we're seeing with the disputes, like with the uh stop sign with the school bus, right? I've recently started like paying more attention of how our bus drivers are driving. Sure. And signaling people to make you, you know, saying, like, okay, what's really happened? Are we finding a lot of people coming in or disputing the so yes? If you flip to the last page, I just gave you a really basic overview of the dispute, the number the volume of tickets issued for each of the three programs. And if we're looking at buses, I did the full program. So it started in May after a 30-day warning period up through March with very little reported in March so far. So just for school buses, just under 7,000 tickets. Um, and it's almost a 50% dispute rate for school buses. Um we see in like what is one of the it's really and it's not that I mean, we sustain most school bus violations. That being said, um, they are the only ticket where you've got two driver behavior being evaluated, right? You've got like you said, you've got the bus driver as well as the vehicle driver, and because it's automated in real time, usually the time when the two vehicles approach is like it's seconds, right? My video length is almost always 11 seconds.

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