Report criticizes Parking Authority

A new report criticizes the Philadelphia Parking Authority for a top-heavy management structure and an inability to control costs. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell requested the review last year after the authority was accused of waste and questionable hiring practices.

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The draft report also accuses the agency of evading the competitive bidding process, and not accounting for 82 free parking passes at the airport.

City Controller Alan Butkovitz says as a result, the city is losing money.

Butkovitz: The Parking Authority has turned into an enormous empire doing everything from towing vehicles that don't have insurance, to administering red light cameras, regulating taxi cabs, if they are they going to be managing a more and more complicated structure, the goal at the end of the day is to make more profit, not that they lose a little bit of money.

Butkovitz says the Authority's costs are increasing at twice the rate of its revenues.

Some have criticized the report for not being thorough. But Butkovitz says his office did the best they could with limited resources. The Parking Authority did not return calls for comment.