Six city employees fired for ticket-fixing

Six city employees involved in dismissing parking tickets for friends and family - and, in one case, for a company that offered gifts - lost their jobs following an investigation into their actions, Mayor Nutter announced Tuesday.

Philadelphia Inspector General Amy Kurland said her ticket-fixing probe had found widespread problems at the Bureau of Administrative Adjudication, the division of the city Finance Department that handles appeals of parking tickets issued by the Philadelphia Parking Authority.

"The integrity of the entire department was compromised," Kurland said at a morning news conference.

Her report called for the BAA to provide better training and establish clear policies for employees who consider ticket appeals, particularly for hearings involving friends, family, and coworkers.

Kurland does not have power to bring criminal charges and referred her findings to District Attorney Seth Williams. His office had no comment Tuesday.

The city is considering whether to try to review the dismissed tickets and recoup the money.

Nutter said he hoped the investigation would send a message to what he said was a small number of employees whose actions tarnish the image of everyone who works for the city.

"There are no deals," Nutter said. "This is not the phone company. We don't have a friends-and-family plan."

Kurland said she did not know how many tickets were dismissed as favors to relatives or friends because her investigation focused on the behavior of a small group of employees and was intended to end the practice of fixing tickets.

She did put a number on one piece of her report: A company that offered free and discounted food to Clorise Wynn, deputy director in charge of the bureau's day-to-day operations, had $50,000 worth of tickets dismissed.

Wynn, who was not available for comment, also dismissed hundreds of parking tickets for friends and 35 for her daughter, the report said.

Wynn also provided poor oversight of employees and failed to implement a policy prohibiting fixing tickets for friends and family of PPA and BAA workers, according to the report.

"Clorise Wynn created a workplace that was devoid of clear rules, isolated line staff, and left gaps in supervision that compromised the integrity of her department. This left Wynn's staff to learn office practice from her example alone, which provided a lesson only in what not to do," Kurland's report said.

Wynn resigned last month.

The inspector general's report also found that BAA supervisor Joanna Schofield also provided "extremely poor oversight to hearing examiners." Schofield, who could not be reached for comment, accelerated her planned retirement and left her job this spring.

The city dismissed hearing examiners Yvette Garcia and Denean Hardy, who both fixed tickets for friends and family.

Robin Bass, a Parking Authority clerk who had her own tickets dismissed, retired before she could be terminated. Her son Reginald Bass-Reid, a PPA coin collector who got his tickets cancelled, was fired by PPA executive director Vincent Fenerty after Kurland recommended it.

Fenerty and city Finance Director Rob Dubow cooperated with Kurland's investigation.

The state oversees the Parking Authority. The BAA is part of a city department.