By Philip Newman
The City Council has approved a five-minute grace period on parking meter expirations to help tardy motorists. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he would veto the measure, but the Council said it would override the veto.
The Council voted 47-2 Monday to approve the metro time extension with only Councilmen Tony Avella (D-Bayside) and Daniel Garodnick (D-Manhattan) opposing it.
It requires a two-thirds majority of council members to override a mayoral veto.
“I am going to veto this,” Bloomberg said after the vote. “It is a misguided piece of legislation and would only lead to chaos.”
Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) said “we will absolutely override any veto. This legislation was intended to help make life ‘just a bit easier’ for citizens in a period of hard times.”
Councilman Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn), a sponsor of the grace period legislation, has assailed traffic agents for what he called “predatory enforcement” of parking regulations.
Indeed, some of the most impassioned rhetoric in the Council involves discussions of parking regulations, usually centering on what many lawmakers see as over-ticketing. The legislators often cite the need to raise revenue as the main reason for increasing the number of parking tickets. The city issued some 10 million traffic-related tickets, including those for parking violations, in 2008.The largest number of parking tickets in Queens was handed out within the 115th Precinct in Jackson Heights back in 2007.
Traffic or parking citations are generally $100.
The grace period legislation would apply only to Muni-Meters, which provide receipts, and not to regular coin-operated parking meters, which have no facility to determine when they expire.
The mayor has 30 days to veto the parking meter grace period parking legislation.
Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at timesledgernews@cnglocal.com or phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 136.
