The City’s Military Affairs, Veterans and Disabled Services Department could take over the responsibility of issuing citations for illegal parking in handicapped accessible spaces if legislation introduced Tuesday is approved.
The department now houses the former Disabled Services Division, which had the responsibility before the City shifted it to the Public Parking Division last year in a cost-saving measure.
That move also reassigned Disabled Parking Enforcement Specialist Bobby Thigpen, who advised a group of “Disabled Parking Auxiliary Officers” commonly known as the “Parking Posse.”
With Thigpen’s assistance, the group was trained to enforce laws governing parking in restricted spaces and it had the ability to write tickets for the $250 fine to offenders.
According to a 2008 Daily Record report about the program, the collected fines were distributed between the City Handicap Parking Trust Fund and the Police and Fire Pension Fund.
Seventy percent went toward the trust fund and provided wheelchair ramps and smoke detectors to disabled people who could not afford them. The other 30 percent went toward the pension fund to offset City contributions.
Since the reassignment of duties, advocates in the disabled community and the parking posse have urged Council to return the duties to the Disabled Services Department, now part of the Military Affairs Department.
Many said the change led to a lack of leadership and fewer tickets.
Administration official Jessica Deal told the Council that under the proposed legislation, the program will be under the oversight of Victor Guillory, director of the department, and that details are being worked out about how the function will work.
The legislation is slated on the agenda of both the Council Rules and Finance committees. If approved by both and the full Council, the ordinance would codify the location of the operation within Military Affairs, Veterans and Disabled Services.
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