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Pennsylvania township to create fund to repay drivers as part of settlement over parking tickets

Upper Darby to create fund to repay drivers as part of settlement over parking tickets scandal
Upper Darby to create fund to repay drivers as part of settlement over parking tickets scandal 04:44

Brian Burke is no longer on Upper Darby Township's council. He's just a taxpayer now.

"I still don't believe anything is resolved for the residents of Upper Darby with the parking scheme," Burke said.

Burke is also fired up, thinking about the many investigations that came after CBS News Philadelphia uncovered a scandal two years ago within the township's parking enforcement department.

"I don't think the investigation from the township was correct," Burke said. "I don't believe everybody did their job. As president of council at the time, I'm not pleased. As a resident, I'm not pleased."

Burke is frustrated the township got itself into this mess. He believes there is deeper criminal conduct, not just incompetence.

This comes as the township is settling a federal class action lawsuit over the parking ticket mess. A Clifton Heights woman sued Upper Darby last year.

Burke is angry there even has to be a settlement after the township bungled the proper collection of parking ticket penalties.

"The investigation of CBS that initially alerted our client that she wasn't alone, this wasn't an isolated instance, of her getting parking tickets and of her being left in limbo when she received no notice of how she could fight or otherwise dispute the ticket," David Stanoch, an attorney for the plaintiff, said.

The complaint says some people, like Stanoch's client, simply pleaded guilty and paid the ticket, even if they wanted to contest it because of the confusion created by the township. Stanoch says the township is in the process of identifying every single driver who was ticketed between Jan. 1, 2021, and Dec. 31, 2022.

An $800,000 fund is intended to repay most of the drivers' fines and penalties associated with all those tickets.

"They should have given notice that if you want to dispute this, this is how and when you do it, it's that simple," Stanoch said.

The CBS News Philadelphia investigation started two years and two months ago. Sources tipped us off that parking tickets were suddenly no longer being sent by the township to district courts. After we began pressing, a troubling picture emerged.

The Pennsylvania court system confirmed that thousands of parking tickets were only sent to them for processing after we had started asking questions.

This means that batches and batches of unprocessed tickets were not sent to the courts until a day or two before we ran our investigation on the 11 p.m. news in January 2023.

At the time, township officials calculated they had lost approximately $1.5 million in revenue.

The Delaware County district attorney and an audit of the township and its parking department found there was incompetence in the management of parking tickets but no criminal wrongdoing. The settlement, given preliminary approval by a federal judge last month, also calls for operational changes.

"The township has also agreed to take steps and make changes in how it operates its parking department so that it does the right things, sends out the notices so this doesn't happen again," Stanoch said.

Upper Darby Township, which has now consolidated parking enforcement under the police department, released this statement to us:

"The Administration remains fully committed to cooperating with and complying with the recent court ruling. As of June 2024, parking enforcement has been re-consolidated under the Upper Darby Police Department. In response, the Township has conducted a thorough review of its parking enforcement processes, including ticketing and the delivery of tickets to the court. These processes have been carefully analyzed and revised to ensure transparency, accuracy, and integrity at every step. The Township remains focused on maintaining a fair and effective system for all residents and visitors." 

Meanwhile, Burke is angry about the lost ticket revenue and wants the new state attorney general to investigate what happened.

"$800,000. $1.5 million. Taxpayers hurt here," Burke said. "Police, fire, parks and rec, art and education, they all hurt. Money was missing. We could have used it."

Upper Darby officials add they're committed to cooperating with the federal court settlement. As for those who paid a parking ticket, they will hear about how to make a claim.

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