Requesting the City Controller to conduct an audit of the Philadelphia Parking Authority's policies and procedures on the administration of its operations in the City of Philadelphia.

WHEREAS, The Joint Committees on Streets & Services and Education of the Council of the City of Philadelphia held a Public Hearing under Resolution No. 160109, to investigate the allocation of funds from the revenues generated from the Red Light Camera Enforcement Program and the parking meter rate increase that went to effect in 2014, as well as the costs associated with administering those programs; and

WHEREAS, The last performance audit of the Philadelphia Parking Authority was in 2009, which was conducted by the City Controller at the request of the Office of the Governor; and

WHEREAS, Despite one of the findings of the 2009 audit that there were no documented policies and procedures for determining payment amounts due to the City and School District of Philadelphia, the School District of Philadelphia still can not accurately budget the amount of funds to be anticipated from the Philadelphia Parking Authority and has no ability to question the derivation of the payments transferred to the School District; and

WHEREAS, Since the transfer of the City’s parking functions to the State in 2004, the Philadelphia Parking Authority has significantly expanded its functions that now include twenty separate business units that are operating separately within the organization: for example, the On-Street Parking Unit of the Philadelphia Parking Authority generated $83,772,704 of revenues in FY 2004 and by FY 2015, the revenues grew to $127,253,365, which equates to a 51.9% increase. During the same period, the total expenses of the On-Street Parking Unit increased from $37,543,139 to $56,267,688, which equates to a 49.9% increase; and

WHEREAS, The Philadelphia Parking Authority provides critical parking functions for the City, and based on the findings of the Hearing, an audit of this nature is appropriate to better understand its expanding operations in the City pursuant to Section 6-400 of the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That Council hereby requests the City Controller to conduct an audit of the Philadelphia Parking Authority’s policies and procedures on the administration of its operations in the City of Philadelphia.

FURTHER RESOLVED, That in no more than 180 days of passing this Resolution, the City Controller submit a full report to the Council, the Mayor, and the Governor and make its findings and recommendations available to the public.

End