COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON THE DISABLED AND THE HANDICAPPED - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:40 p.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER, CHAIR COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILMAN JAMES F. KENNEY COUNCILWOMAN MARIA QUINONES-SANCHEZ COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO COUNCILMAN BRIAN O'NEILL BILL 080149 - An ordinance amending Section 12-1117 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Physically Handicapped and Disabled Veteran Parking"... - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2
Good afternoon. We want to call the Committee on the Disabled and Handicapped. (Witness approached witness table.)
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Donna Reed Miller. I am Chair of the Committee on the Disabled and Handicapped. The Committee on Disabled and Handicapped is now in session. Let the record reflect that in attendance are to my left Councilwoman Sanchez, to my right Councilman Curtis Jones and Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown. And also in attendance, Councilman Jim Kenney and Councilman Frank Rizzo. Would the Clerk please read the title of the bill.
Bill No. 080149, an ordinance amending Section 12-1117 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Physically Handicapped and Disabled or Severely Disabled Veteran Parking," and Section 3 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 12-2809, entitled "Civil Penalties and Costs," by expressly prohibiting certain improper uses of Disabled Parking Permits and providing for penalties, all under certain terms and conditions.
Thank you. We also have Councilman Brian O'Neill in attendance. I'd like to begin by thanking all in attendance. This bill addresses an issue that usually goes unnoticed. Members of the disabled and handicapped community rely heavily on their parking spots. However, insensitive drivers either illegally park or improperly use a valid handicapped permit. To show the seriousness of this infraction, we are calling on the creation of a $1,000 fine for this conduct. With that in mind, Councilman Jim Kenney, I know that you have some opening remarks. 4 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149
Thank you, Madam Chair, for scheduling the hearing and for your comments. You've made some of the remarks already. I just would like to say for the record that it is certainly appropriate for the City of Philadelphia to be providing space for disabled individuals, whether it's parking poles in front of a house or whether it's special spots in a surface parking garage or special meters on the street. And I think that it's appropriate that we do so, because people do have difficulty getting out and about and we want to allow disabled folks to enjoy the same level of convenience as non-disabled folks. The problem is, with all things, is that people always try to get over. If you are an able-bodied person and you use a disabled person's placard for merely your convenience, I think you really ought to examine your own conscience in the first place. And, 5 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 secondly, what we'd like to do is to get the government involved in enforcing that misuse of those placards. This has nothing to do with parking poles or with meters. This has to do with the transferable placard. And as we know, the rule in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is that you must either be the disabled person themselves using the placard or the disabled individual must be in the car with an ID card provided by PennDOT to prove the disability. Rick Dickson from the Parking Authority is here to testify on some of the anecdotal information that their people bring back to their staff about the misuse and abuse of handicapped parking placards. I've seen myself individuals pull up quickly into a disabled parking spot at a supermarket, plop the handicapped placard in the rear-view mirror, then dash off at a jog into the store. And Rick will tell you 6 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 about some people going to gyms to work out, with their gym bag on their shoulder, while they're using the handicapped placard. So we just want people to start thinking about what it is they're doing and what they're abusing, and we'd like the Parking Authority -- I would like the Parking Authority, and the approval of this Committee to do so, to get them involved in approaching individuals who are exiting or getting into a car with a handicapped placard to ask them to produce the ID card, and if not, then they would be fined appropriately. So this is a way to free up spaces for disabled individuals and to stop the abuse of people trying to get over when they're not disabled. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Kenney. Does any other Councilmembers want to make any remarks? 7 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 Councilman Rizzo.
Mr. Dickson, it's fair to say that there are at least I know --
I just wanted to ask a question so as we go on, I better understand. You have a license plate that has physically disabled and handicapped, correct?
No. They're all physically disabled. There are no longer any HP. They're all DP plates.
Well, no. There are two plates, one for a person with disabilities and there are also severely 8 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 disabled veterans plates. So there's two plates. One for people who are non-veterans, one for people who are veterans.
So not everybody that's physically disabled has a missing leg or arm. You could have other medical conditions that would qualify you for that, correct?
Why don't we call on Mr. Dickson for his testimony and then --
And, Madam Chair, just so the record is clear, this has nothing to do with the metal plate on the back of the car. This is when a disabled placard in the rear-view mirror is being used on a car with a non-disabled plate.
Right. I know exactly what you're using. I had one of those plates when my daughter had her leg amputated. So it's a removable 9 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 plate actually. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Dickson, since you are our witness.
Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the Committee. My name is Richard Dickson. I'm the Senior Director of Strategic Planning and Administration for the Philadelphia Parking Authority. I've submitted written testimony, but I want to take a couple of minutes to talk about the frustration that our parking enforcement officers often face when confronted with people who don't appear to have any physical disability, but are using credentials for people with disability to get parking. This is a long-running series of steps that need to be taken in order to provide access to parking for people with disabilities. Philadelphia is 300 years old. The curb space we have is all we're ever going to have. There's a limited number of parking spaces. 10 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 There's an even more severely limited number of spaces reserved for people with disabilities, and these are the people whose convenient access to our stores and restaurants and doctors' offices are even more important than those of us that don't have those kinds of restrictions. Six or seven years ago, the Council changed the law regarding the privileges that were available for people with disabilities, because prior to that time, it was free all-day parking was provided for anyone with a plate or a placard reserved for people with disabilities. Prior to that time, 70 percent of some of the blocks in Center City were occupied all day with people with these credentials. By changing the law to permit a one-hour time limit, one hour beyond the posted time limit, we reduced that number from 70 percent on some of those blocks on Chestnut Street down to less than five percent. At the same time, we installed meters reserved 11 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 exclusively for people with disabilities. So the economic incentive was taken away from those people that were using it for commuter parking. What we now have, however, is people using placards that were issued to truly disabled people and being taken by people who are not disabled. These are not the license plates. These are the placards that you hang on the rear-view mirror. For example, if my grandmother receives a placard and she doesn't have a car and I drive her around in my car, I'm permitted to use that placard only during the time that I'm transporting my disabled grandmother. What we see every day -- and it's particularly apparent -- go any day on Walnut Street in front of the gym at the University of Pennsylvania and you will see 20-some-year-old people park their car, put the placard on the window, put their gym bag over their shoulder and jog into the gym. We get parking 12 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 enforcement officers every day coming into the office that say this is a problem that we need to confront. There's one reserved meter space on every metered block. When that person takes that meter space out of service, there's nowhere else for that disabled person to go. So we have people who have no level of disability taking advantage of a system only to get convenient and, in some places, lower-priced parking. The Parking Authority's mission is to provide access for people to take advantage of the full range of services in the City. When we have people that are taking advantage of it, we're taking those opportunities away from those people that have incredible obstacles for the full participation in this life anyway. And it is an obligation that we believe that we have, and we think Councilman Kenney's bill goes a long way towards addressing that issue, to say if 13 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 you are really disabled or you're transporting a person with a disability, you have an identification card that you can easily show to say that you're entitled to that space.
But those people that we see every single day parking in those spaces who have no apparent mobility impairment, we should be able to go -- when they see them entering or exiting the vehicle, all we do is ask to see the identification card that is required under state law to be carried with them when they're using those credentials. A thousand dollar fine is a pretty steep incentive not to violate the law. It doesn't take too many of those tickets before people are going to begin to get the message that this is not the way that we're going to conduct business in the City. And this will really improve the quality of life for those people who have disabilities.
14 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 Councilman Rizzo.
An application to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Under Pennsylvania law, you can get that by having a doctor certify the nature of your disability. The disability should be related to a mobility impairment. It doesn't necessarily mean an amputee, but someone with a severe heart condition that would reduce a person's mobility would also be eligible to apply. The other flaw in the law, which this Council can't address but the state Legislature can address, is that sworn police officers are also entitled to sign that application to attest to a person's disability. Police officers are wonderful people and they do incredible things for the people of the City, but I don't know that they have the medical qualifications to make a determination as 15 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 to the level of impairment that would be necessary to get one of these placards. The Police Commissioner in the City of Philadelphia has issued a directive that Philadelphia police officers are not permitted to sign that for that very reason. However, suburban police officers have no such restriction.
The process to get one of these placards, that needs obviously some work. Why can't the person that the placard applies to have their name on it or some way of identifying them?
Well, one thing that we don't want to do and one thing that the state has, I think, appropriately been reluctant to do is to publicly display a person's name or any identifying characteristic for those people who could have some predatory instincts to take advantage of someone who does not have the physical capability of defending themselves. You're taking 16 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 people who are already at risk and putting them in possible peril in another way by doing that.
But your statement about the gym, University of Pennsylvania, it's an assumption. You don't know that those people aren't physically -- have physical disabilities, that they don't have a heart condition and they're going to get therapy at the gym. Is it fair to say it's an assumption?
We are assuming that based on the evidence that we see when we see someone, a 20-year-old man or woman, throw a gym bag over their shoulder and run into a gym.
The reason that the Legislature -- that the Department of Transportation issues identification cards with these placards is because of the potential for abuse and to provide 17 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 municipalities the possibility of enforcing this, because -- so that you can say to the driver of the vehicle, Can I see the identification card that goes with this placard, to ensure that it's being used appropriately.
Is there any reason the Department of Transportation who issues these would object to having an ID card associated with their placard?
They currently issue ID cards associated with the placard for that reason. Councilman Kenney's ordinance would permit the Parking Authority or police officers to request a motorist to show the identification and it provides the violation, which currently doesn't exist in the City of Philadelphia, to punish those people who are inappropriately using it.
So what happens in the scenario that you used, that you're taking your relative to the 18 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 doctor, you drop them at the doctor's office, you then go park the car and you don't have the ID card?
We would put safeguards in place that if we could document that that person -- if they could submit documentation that that person was at the doctor's office at that time from the doctor's office, we would be able to review it in that manner, so that nobody would be inappropriately penalized.
Thank you very, very much. Good afternoon. I wanted to read this before asking my question. Currently when the Parking Authority moves to change policy and needs to inform Philadelphia residents or citizens about a new change of policy that might 19 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 affect them financial or otherwise, procedurally what do you do in-house?
We always try to get as extensive press coverage as we can to those policies. Often we also put out warning notices for some period of time prior to that. What we probably would do in this case is, if we see vehicles parked with placards, that we would have a flyer that we would put on there to say, Be reminded that there's a new law in the City of Philadelphia and these are the penalties for violation of the law. And we'd probably do that for a couple of weeks before we issued actual tickets.
Might you have a database of persons who have handicapped placards internally?
We do not have one. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation would have that. I don't know if there is a mechanism for us to access that. It may be possible. I 20 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 don't know the answer to that right now, but we could find out.
Here are the reasons for my question: I come from a school of thought, don't hold me responsible for anything for that which you have not brought to my attention, and if we as a city move to adopt these new increases in the violations, for sure citizens should be penalized, but for sure also they should be informed, alerted, red flagged that it's pretty severe now. So that's why I raise the question. Internally, how do you go about alerting citizens? For example, you don't send -- I don't know who does -- I know you file the tickets or you write the tickets, but there's a back-office entity that actually mails the tickets, correct?
Well, delinquency notices are mailed. That's under our supervision. There's a contractor that 21 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 does it, but we're responsible for mailing of those. The ticket is issued to the vehicle.
Okay. And there's no first, second, third warning kind of thing in place?
I'll have a sidebar with the sponsor of the bill, but my -- it's not a reservation. My caution is, as we move to institute what I believe is a fair means of correcting the problem, because it is a problem, we also inform citizens that there's a severe penalty. And that's my only observation and caution about this.
Councilwoman, I think that we could contact PennDOT and ask if they could send notification to those people to whom placards have been issued, at least in this area.
May I respond to Councilwoman Brown's concern? 22 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149
I agree with you that notification should be ample and clear, but the true fact of the matter is that if you have two strong legs and a strong back and you get out of your bed in the morning and get in your car and put your handicapped placard in, I don't know if you need to be notified about that. I think you need to be notified through the methods that they're going to employ, and maybe the PennDOT letter would help, but in the end, it's your own conscience that should be telling you you don't need this.
I agree with you 2,000 percent, so what I'm suggesting is, also at fault are the persons who are -- or some persons who have had the placard, who've actually received the placard, because they are sharing that with whomever. And so it's important to alert those who legally 23 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 legitimately have requested the placard now know, should you decide to pass this on to Ken, friend or whatever, there's a severe penalty involved.
But I also have situations in my own neighborhood where people come and visit their friend, who has a disabled plate on the back of their car, and the disabled plate guy gives his placard to the visitor, who parks in his handicapped parking spot for the weekend. Or I had actually a situation down in South Philly where a house was up for sale and one of the features of the house was handicapped parking poles. It came with a bath and a half, a remodeled kitchen, nice rear yard and a handicapped parking spot in front of your house. And he was selling his house.
That already got taken care of. 24 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149
So that goes to the gist of my questioning. I think we as a government have to go the extra mile to inform consumers they're going to be penalized.
I had a question and I also again want to thank Mr. Dickson, who always comes here prepared, totally knowledgeable and can answer every question sharply, right on point. It's a privilege to be around when you're here, Mr. Dickson.
But I understand my bleeding heart friend over there, even having a heart bleeding for people who are doing a despicable act, 25 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 which I, who would do anything for a parking spot, figure out anything to do, I would never touch that short blue one, because it's like electrocution in your head, because you know you're depriving someone of a spot. You're not -- even if you're willing to pay the ticket that's out there now. There are not that many of them. In some areas they're always filled. Now I know why they're more filled in some areas than others. But it occurred to me that there are certain parking restrictions that we have in the City where under the sign or we create a sign, but it's usually talking about the fine, and if you just had some plates made up -- you'd pay for them the first hour -- stating that it's a $1,000 fine right there, you don't have to give warnings. Because these people don't deserve a warning. They should know it's serious what they're doing. They're not doing the old thing that Frank DiCicco introduced where 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 he cured the lame and disabled at 1801 Vine Street. The day after it went in -- every spot across from the courthouse was taken with employees, and the next day they were all cured, they walked. They found spots somewhere else. But at least then you were just trying to beat the system. This is a little different. You're not just beating the system not having to pay for your spot. You are depriving a handicapped person of a parking spot that they need. So if you can create a metal piece to add on or create something like that, I think it would pay for itself. The last question I have, it's not covered by Councilman Kenney's bill 19 that's before us, and the Parking Authority, I'm sure -- I shouldn't say I'm sure. Probably doesn't have jurisdiction, but if someone can answer us while we are making a record here. I go into a lot of shopping centers, because that's mostly what I have in my 27 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 district for parking. I can't tell you -- you think the people going into the gym are a joke at Penn. These people park right in front of the store and these elderly people, they can't find a spot. I mean, because they don't have that many usually, and they're the best spots usually in the shopping center. And I've never seen anyone have to pay any price for it. You know, something like this, I would think there would be a lot of police officers that would love -- because no one likes people that do this. And I don't know how we can do it with the private property and all that, but they're required to have so many, so there must be government in play here. Not today's bill, I understand. The Parking Authority may never get jurisdiction on it, but if we could do something, I think this kind of thing is what keeps those spots open.
Well, Councilman, in response to that, Councilman DiCicco's 28 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 bill, the earlier bill, gave the Parking Authority and the Police automatic authority to enforce reserved spaces in public garages, garages that are available to the public, enforce this restriction on the spaces that are reserved for people with disabilities. We do that in several areas. We may not do it as effectively or as consistently as we should, but we do have that authority now. But I will take that back --
And maybe this would apply to that without any amendments or anything?
Yeah. It's in the same section of the Code. 29 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149
I just have one question, too. When you say "garages," you also mean lots?
Great. And trust me, I mean, I feel this bill. I transported for almost two years a disabled child, and I was so frustrated when we'd get to certain places and couldn't find parking close to the door. It just adds a whole level of burden. And I just want everybody to be clear. The ticket goes to the vehicle?
Well, that was 30 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 Councilwoman Brown's issue, and I will research the feasibility of getting information out to placard holders. That would have to come through PennDOT, because we don't currently have that.
Councilwoman Miller, I tell you, that's not a bad idea, because a lot of times these placards are abused by relatives of the disabled person. So if grand mom legitimately has the placard and the grandchildren are using it for their own convenience, maybe if she knows about it, she'll put an end to what they're doing.
Could you please -- since PennDOT is the regulator of the placard, is there a process where if you abuse it at the PennDOT level, it can be revoked? Should we possibly talk to those folks and communicate with them 31 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 that they need to establish if you have one violation, the same way like the point system with a motor vehicle, if those should be revokable, where if they're abused or someone does abuse them, that PennDOT cancel them? Now, they have a bar code, I think, on them and someone mentioned that eventually the Police were going to be able to read those hang tags with some device, but I think that we haven't really done all we can do at the PennDOT level to have them buy into this, that if they're abused like we've described today, that they take them away or just cancel them.
Madam Chairman, we researched that. I just want to give a response to the issue. We felt that at the time -- I mean, I'm going to use grand mom as the example. Grand mom has the legitimate placard and the grandchildren or other relatives are abusing it. Well, if we revoke grand 32 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 mom's placard, she didn't do it. It's the grandchildren that did it, and the grandchildren, who probably own the car, are the ones who are going to pay the fine, and if grand mom gets notified that this abuse is potential, then she'll put an end to it hopefully before -- I don't want to in any way penalize the disabled person when the non-disabled people are the ones that are the abusers.
Or the problem could be where grand mom's car is used where a relative goes shopping, uses the placard, grand mom then gets the thousand dollar ticket.
If the car is in her name, if they use grand mom's car.
If the vehicle is not in that person's name, if the vehicle is in someone else's name, we would issue the ticket to the person who was driving 33 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 the vehicle based on the driver's license. We have to tie it to a plate in order to process it, but we would change the responsibility from the owner of the vehicle to the person who was the driver.
But wouldn't the odds be that grand mom doesn't have a car, that's why she needs a placard for her relatives to run her around?
Thank you. Have you experienced an attempt to actually duplicate these falsely, counterfeit them?
Yes. That happens with some degree of regularity, and it's becoming harder to detect with the improvement in copying machines and things like that. And actually the placards do not currently have a bar code 34 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 on them. One of the things that -- we've asked PennDOT to explore anti-fraud kinds of production methods in order to increase the safety of -- I mean, limit the ability of people to duplicate them inappropriately.
What are the penalties for counterfeiting these placards?
This bill 12 establishes a thousand dollar penalty for that.
And are there any other charges that can be applied? Like if we counterfeit currency, there is a federal -- is there any statute or criminal penalty associated with it other than a fine?
Is there cause to look into that? Because I understand it's a thriving business.
Madam 35 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 Chair, our research has indicated that -- actually, we have a letter we're going to submit from the Police Department supporting the legislation. They are upset that the fine isn't higher for the counterfeiting, and we can consider amending it, if you like. I think the criminal penalties for it would have to come out of the Commonwealth as opposed to us.
I just want to put on the record the placard idea offered by Councilman O'Neill where you sort of -- not placard, but you indicate on the notice. That goes exactly to informing the person who is about to park there, here's what you're up against if you're in violation.
Yes, 36 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 Councilwoman. We did that when we increased the fine for parking, just anybody parking in the space. I don't see any reason why we couldn't add language to the reserved parking signs that would give that information.
Councilman Kenney, I think I heard you say that the testimony -- the Police Department's testimony will be given to the stenographer to be entered in the record?
Great. Are there any other witnesses to testify on this bill? (No response.)
Seeing 37 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 none, thank you. Thank you, Rick.
Seeing none, this concludes the public hearing on the Committee on Disabled and the Handicapped. We will now go into our public meeting. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Sanchez.
Thank you. I move that Bill 080149 be moved out of Committee with a favorable recommendation and that the rules of Council be suspended to allow first reading at our next meeting. (Duly seconded.)
All 38 10/28/08 - DISABLED - BILL 080149 opposed? (No response.)
Seeing no 5 opposition, this bill has been properly moved and seconded and, furthermore, the rules of Council have been requested to be suspended so as to permit first reading at our next session. Thank you.
This concludes the hearing. Thank you. (Committee on the Disabled and the Handicapped adjourned at 2:10 p.m.) - - - 39 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on October 28, 2008, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)