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An unappealing situation for Center City motorist

Wrongly ticketed by the Parking Authority, he decided to fight.

File: A customer uses a PPA parking kiosk on the 900 block of Filbert Street in Philadelphia. (David Maialetti / Staff Photographer)
File: A customer uses a PPA parking kiosk on the 900 block of Filbert Street in Philadelphia. (David Maialetti / Staff Photographer)Read moreDavid Maialetti / Staff Photographer

THE BUREAU OF Administrative Adjudication. I always loved the sound of the name, if not the process. That's where you go to fight your parking tickets, and that's where I went last week with Brian Yan, a guy fighting for a principle.

In August, I reported that Yan, 38, had pulled into a parking space in Center City and was ticketed before he could walk to the curb.

He filed an appeal the day he was ticketed and received a response the same day, saying it had been received.

A month later, he got a letter saying his appeal was rejected - he thought he had filed an intent to appeal - and that he must pay $36, or he could appeal again. By registered mail, he did.

He received two letters on Oct. 6.

One said that his appeal was scheduled for Oct. 27. The other said that he failed to appeal and must pay his fine immediately.

Hello, Left Hand, meet Right Hand. Do you know what you are doing?

"I thought it was just going to be the usual PPA ordeal, where they keep it up until you send in the money," Yan says.

He shows up for a hearing last Monday at 8:50 a.m., 10 minutes early. I am with him. He tells me, "I forgot my pennies," referring to a promise he made that if he lost he would pay the $36 fine with 3,600 pennies.

We are called into the office of hearing examiner Raymonte Gay. A motto on his desk reads: Love for all, Hatred for none.

He tells us the hearing will be recorded and swears Yan in, then me. I identify myself only as Yan's friend, which by this time is true.

Gay says the officer's report says that Yan was ticketed for being at an expired meter.

Yan explains what he has said before: He pulled into a spot, turned off the engine, collected his sunglasses and change for the meter and got out of his car only to find Parking Enforcement Officer Alfred Toto writing the ticket. When Yan protested, a startled Toto said he hadn't seen the driver but had finished writing the ticket and couldn't rescind it. When I looked into the case back in August, PPA interviewed Toto and said that Yan was right.

Instead of just killing the ticket, Yan was told to appeal it. He did, and that's why we are at the BAA office, at 9th and Filbert.

Gay finds it hard to believe that Yan could have been ticketed so quickly. That's when he is shown my Aug. 4 column, which reported that PPA Executive Director Vince Fenerty said the same thing but later accepted Yan's account.

Gay asks Yan if he had asked Toto to revoke the ticket. Yan says Toto said it was too late.

Gay asks if Yan had asked for a supervisor.

Yan says he did and was told that none was available.

Gay asks if that didn't seem odd. Yan shrugs.

Gay is mystified, wonders aloud why "PPA didn't resolve this, rather than send it to us."

Yan is wondering the same thing, especially because he has taken time off from his job as a property manager to be here.

In the case "of a blatant error by PPA, they can rescind," says Gay, and Yan should have contacted PPA first.

Yan says he followed the instructions on the ticket.

It's like a house of mirrors.

In the end, Gay reluctantly gives Yan "the benefit of the doubt" and finds in his favor.

But if PPA could have killed the ticket, why did it direct Yan to the appeal process?

I ask Bureau of Administrative Adjudication Director Jerry Connors if Gay is right: Can PPA kill a ticket that's already written?

After a deep sigh, Connors says that once a ticket is issued it is usually out of PPA's hands, but that the Parking Authority can "cancel certain tickets if they are proven to be not valid due to their own records."

That seems to be what happened. I call PPA's Fenerty for three straight days to ask why.

He doesn't return my calls.

Phone: 215-854-5977

On Twitter: @StuBykofsky

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