When was the last time the Philadelphia Parking Authority made you happy?
Like, never?
Well, new director Rina Cutler is determined to change that, and for starters, she's scrapping one of its most annoying policies.
Soon, if you walk up and find an officer scribbling a ticket for your car, the ticket writer won't have to finish writing the ticket - they'll be able to tear it up.
That's one of a handful of steps Cutler announced yesterday in presenting the authority's new "Customer Service Plan." Call it the kinder and gentler Parking Authority.
There are plans to give you more than the current eight days to pay tickets before you start getting hit for late penalties, though that will require City Council approval.
"Some of (these steps) are very, very good news for people who park their cars in the City of Philadelphia," Mayor Rendell said at a news conference yesterday.
The new policy on voiding tickets that are being written when you arrive won't be in place for a few weeks. Cutler said she'll have to print forms that the driver will have to sign, and ticket-writers will have to radio in to a supervisor when they're voiding one.
"We have to keep track of where those voids are happening and how often and to whom," Cutler said. "For my own reasons, I'd like know if the same person is having their ticket voided 20 times a week."
Cutler also said the authority has undertaken a program to repay motorists who've inadvertently overpaid for past tickets or penalties.
Cutler said Philadelphia was following the lead of Boston, which repaid more than $2 million to motorists over the last year.
The Boston repayment effort came after articles in the Boston Herald documented the overpayments, and the fact that the Boston Transportation Department had done nothing about them.
The Daily News has been requesting information on ticket overpayments from the Philadelphia Parking Authority since October.
Other steps announced by Cutler include:
* Having a cashier at the authority's impoundment lot, so owners pay a fine and pick up their towed car at one location.
* Free parking while you pay fines or attend hearings at the 9th and Filbert streets parking violations branch office. Currently, people get tickets while paying their tickets.
* More cashiers and longer hours at the parking violations branch. Cutler says hours will be longer than any city in the country.
* More time to pay tickets, 15 days instead of eight, if City Council approves.
* Clearer and better-maintained parking signs.
* A new complaint resolution unit to monitor and investigate citizen gripes.
* "Caution" signs to alert motorists on meters in areas that are tow zones during some hours.
* New training for employees to "enhance the degree of parking professionalism and courtesy exhibited by all personnel."
