Ronnie Polaneczky: At PPA, tickets and violations

IN 2004, five Philadelphia Parking Authority employees complained to the Daily News of being pressured to buy tickets to Republican fundraisers or risk reprisal on the job.

The PPA conducted its own investigation of the alleged "macing" and concluded that there was no wrongdoing. Still, the PPA's revised handbook now states that no employee shall be "made to believe that his or her continued or advanced employment . . . is contingent upon participation in charitable or political activity of fundraising."

Didn't Ron Wooden read it?

A 17-year PPA employee, Wooden is the authority's head security supervisor and also Republican leader of the 11th Ward. According to a PPA employee who wants to be identified as "Tameka" in this column, Wooden hounded her to buy a $125 ticket to the Republican City Committee's fall fundraiser, held last Tuesday.

She said that Wooden, her "sponsor" in the Republican-controlled PPA, had always made it clear that, if she didn't buy tickets to the committee's three annual fundraisers, her job could be in jeopardy. So she bought them.

But it irked her.

"It's extortion," she said.

So, a month ago, when Wooden started pushing her to buy yet another ticket, she contacted the Daily News. I then was invited by her to listen in when she returned a call from Wooden to discuss the ticket.

Tameka said that she couldn't afford the ticket; her fiancé was out of work. Wooden reminded her that "three [tickets] a year is what it's all about." If Tameka ran into job problems, he said, the first thing PPA bosses would ask is, "Did she buy her tickets?"

They sparred for about three tense minutes. Finally, Wooden suggested that Tameka pay for the ticket in two installments.

Tameka reluctantly agreed.

"I'm afraid to say 'no,' " she said after she hung up.

Over the next few weeks, though, she ignored Wooden's follow-up calls for the money. Finally, she phoned PPA's deputy executive director, Linda Miller, for advice about the situation, although she never told Miller that Wooden was the person pressuring her.

Both women agree that Miller assured Tameka that job security didn't depend on ticket purchases. But they disagree about what was said next.

Miller, Tameka claims, suggested that, in the future, Tameka regard the tickets as a Republican "donation," the way Miller had done for years. She says that Miller also suggested that Tameka create a "payment plan" so that, when fundraisers came up, she could pay for them with squirreled-away savings.