The Reading Parking Authority needs a watchdog

by Steve Reinbrecht

Things are worse at the Reading Parking Authority than the Reading Eagle reports.

In the big, wide world, these events seem remarkably dull and unimportant. But cases like these are the “broken windows” in city government that need to be fixed right away so crooked people know the public cares about integrity and is watching.

Keeping an eye on fiefdoms like the parking authority and Reading Redevelopment Authority is a good job for local journalism.

The Eagle did have the amusing story about how the recently hired supervisor of operations was fired because the job doesn’t exist and he can’t speak English well enough.

He was hired by the new parking authority interim executive director, Rei Encarnacion, who is the guy Mayor Wally Scott couldn’t get City Council to hire as city managing director. And we know employees were stealing quarters.

The parking authority is important because it sets meter rates and hands out tickets to keep people from hogging spots. It also is responsible for maintaining millions of dollars worth of taxpayer-funded parking garages, where deferred maintenance will be more expensive maintenance. 

And the city depends on the parking authority to fork over big wads of cash to balance its budget every year.

I think the big story is that the authority’s finance manager, Christina Gilfert, quit about three weeks ago. She’d been there for almost 15 years and my guess is she had been crucial in running the authority.

She wanted to comment only briefly, saying she decided to leave -- she wasn't pushed out -- and is happier now. She said things had been bad since the board fired executive director Larry Lee in late 2012, after former Mayor Vaughn Spencer reorganized the board.

The subsequent executive director, Patrick Mulligan, apparently sort of drifted away from the job in November.

I called the parking authority Monday morning to ask about Gilfert, and was put on hold for more than six minutes before I could even say hello.

Steve Price, the authority’s lawyer, told me in an e-mail he was “not at liberty to discuss this personnel issue at this time.”

The Eagle could follow up to shine a light on irregular hiring practices at city agencies.

How was the job advertised? Let's see the applicant’s résumé and the job description to see if a reasonable person would consider him qualified.