The City of Wilmington plans to make improvements to its parking system.
This comes after work by AAA Mid-Atlantic, businesses, and other parties in urging the city to make reforms.
AAA Mid-Atlantic’s Vice President of Public and Government Affairs, Cathy Rossi, issued the following statement:
“On behalf of drivers throughout the region, AAA is grateful to the Purzycki Administration for carefully reviewing AAA’s concerns and proposing significant reforms to make the parking, ticketing, appeals, booting, and towing processes more transparent, fair, and in compliance with state and city code. AAA looks forward to continuing to work with both the Purzycki Administration and City Council to improve the parking enforcement system for drivers in Wilmington.”
A memo to City Council from Mayor Mike Purzycki’s chief of staff, stated that the opening in July of a parking call center as providing immediate improvements in customer service. People getting tickets have long complained about a lack of transparency in the process of determining the status of tickets.
The memo says the Parkmobile app has been successful, with the city planning to replace all meters with kiosks that reduce the number of disputes. A lingering problem is involved tickets that are issued even though motorists say it is clear that the parking meter is broken.
Parking enforcement officers will soon be equipped with hand-held devices that will take photos of violations and print tickets with the photo displayed with the ticket.
Also in the works will be an online appeals process that will not require a visit to city offices and possible changes in the towing process, with parking-related towing handled separately from police-related tows.
Parking remains a sizable source of revenue for the city. The $40 cost of a parking ticket has long been criticized, although the city says the fine has not been raised in years.
