Constables Fight To Keep Share Of Parking Ticket Fines

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Berks County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Berks County state constables make hundreds of thousands of dollars each year serving warrants for unpaid citations issued by the Reading Parking Authority.

Last year, the authority helped draft a state bill that would allow it to handle its own delinquent parking tickets and collect an estimated $500,000 lost to what city officials call inefficiencies in the city’s constable and district court system. The measure, House Bill 1803, cleared the state House in June and was referred to the Senate.

Last month, fearing for their livelihoods, the constables launched a lobbying effort to kill the bill.

Led by Thomas Impink, elected state constable for Wernersville and president of the Pennsylvania State Constables Association, the constables pressured state Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, a Delaware County Republican, to send the bill to committee, stalling its progress.

Read more:http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=408108

This Is A Good Example Of Why Towns Should Have Free Parking!

Image via Wikipedia

Bad publicity is bad publicity.  Now you have annoyed someone who is making it their mission to tell people not to frequent your downtown.  Was it worth the $15 dollars?  The answer is no.  It is not cost-effective as people will frequent malls and strip shopping centers where parking is free and plentiful.  Click on link below for the full story!

http://www.pottsmerc.com/articles/2011/03/08/opinion/srv0000011069192.txt

Pottstown Parking Enforcement

At the last Borough Council meeting it was announced that the Police Department has hired two part-time “Parking Enforcement” officers.  Here we go again….

It is hard enough to attract people downtown to patronize businesses without adding over zealous parking police into the mix.  Parking downtown is not for the faint of heart to begin with thanks to Mr. Hylton’s back-in diagonal parking.

Parking downtown should be FREE!  Parking at the mall is free.  Why do you think people go there instead?  If we are trying to attract shoppers and restaurant patrons downtown this is an ass-backwards approach IMHO.

The small amount of money this generates, to cover the cost of two part-time people and a few thousand dollars into borough coffers, is a drop in the bucket compared to what customers will spend downtown on goods and services.

Bad idea.  Boo hiss!