The Philadelphia Parking Authority is under siege, and the Perth Amboy Parking Authority has been turned into a city utility so the city council can oversee the spending after an audit showed that the group had spent nearly a quarter of a million bucks more than they had taken in in 2006. Whoops. And there may have been some malfeasance along the way.
Although theft can be referred to the local police, and has been, the overspending cannot be controlled by the council since the Authority is an autonomous entity. Now, under the new title, the council can supervise the numbers and whip the Authority, er Utility into shape.
It seems, however, that one of the councilpersons was the "parking liaison" but had her back covered by the auditor who said that to notice the quarter of a mil going out the door, she would have had to have been on site in the Authority office daily, an impossible task.
Ok, so now we have the city council overseeing the Parking Authority. Is this like the fox watching the hen house? No offense, I’m sure the elected officials of Perth Amboy are doing a good job and will whip the parking folks into shape. But wouldn’t simply firing the head of the Authority have done the job.
Whoops — there was no one who could fire someone at the Authority. But wasn’t there a board, or someone around to check the place out? Guess not…
Isn’t parking wonderful.
JVH
