Carmella Mantello, a Republican candidate for an At-Large City Council seat, reported Friday the results of her Freedom of Information Law request for details about parking tickets.
Mantello, who gained experience with FOIL getting information from the Rensselaer County Board of Elections, said there are 14,081 unpaid tickets. The fines and penalties bring the amount to $1,074,462.67. That’s roughly 6 unpaid parking tickets per day since 2009.
Here’s Mantello’s release:
CARMELLA MANTELLO DISCLOSES OVER $1 MILLION IN UNPAID PARKING TICKETS IN THE CITY OF TROY
Carmella Mantello, At-Large candidate for Troy City Council, today stated, “There is an astounding $1,074,462.67 outstanding parking tickets owed to the city of Troy.” Mantello acquired this information through a Freedom of Information (FOIL) (see attachment) request which was received on October 29, 2015 from the City of Troy. This amount covers the period from 2009 to date and includes over 14,000 unpaid parking tickets.
Mantello stated, “The city should make every effort to recoup the over one million dollars in unpaid parking tickets which could then be put into the city’s budget as a revenue to deal with the city’s difficult fiscal problems.”
“Other cities have found creative ways to encourage people to pay their outstanding tickets, including waiving part of the interest costs or other inducements,” Mantello added. “As a member of the council, I would continue to monitor the city’s finances and look for ways to reduce the tax burden on the people of Troy.”
The City Council authorized the hiring of Penn Credit in late 2013 to go after $1.5 million in unpaid parking tickets and ambulance charges.
