Quaglione vows to fight ‘unfair ticket attacks’

City Council Candidate Says His District is Being Singled Out for Excessive Ticketing

May 4, 2017 By John Alexander Brooklyn Daily Eagle

City Council candidate John Quaglione held a press conference about unfair parking violations in the borough. Eagle photo by John Alexander

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According to City Council candidate John Quaglione, the Parking Violation Bureau excessively tickets commercial vehicles in the 43rd District, which includes Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bath Beach and Bensonhurst, forcing small-business owners and commercial vehicle operators with more than 10 tickets to have to travel to Manhattan to the commercial adjudication unit to dispute the tickets.

On Thursday, Quaglione held a press conference in front of the Brooklyn Business Center at 210 Joralemon St., to address what he called “unfair parking ticket attacks” in his district. Quaglione said that the 68th and 62nd precincts were ranked the sixth and seventh most-ticketed police precincts in Brooklyn.

“We’ve all gone back to our cars after stopping in a store and getting bagels, getting a cup of coffee, only to find an orange envelope on our windshield. And as soon as you see that you know that the city is coming for your money, the city is coming after you,” said Quaglione.

Quaglione spoke about the lack of options residents have in fight parking violations and how this issue affects local businesses. He said that commercial vehicle operators are especially targeted by what he termed a “rigged system.”

“This current system for fighting tickets hurts businesses, resident and workers in our district. A commercial vehicle operator can get up to 10 tickets in a single day. Taking time off work and traveling long distances to dispute them is an unnecessary added cost,” said Quaglione. “It’s discriminatory towards the outer boroughs.”

Quaglione proposed two strategies he would implement if he is elected. First, he would reintroduce “night court,” which would be open once a week for residents to fight parking violations during evening hours. He explained that the city had disbanded it to make it more difficult to dispute a violation.

Secondly, he would allow commercial vehicle operators to fight their tickets, regardless of the amount of tickets they receive, in their borough’s Parking Violations Bureau.

Also speaking at the press conference were local family-owned business workers Norman Arbeeny and Eric Liu of HVAC air conditioning.

“I am representing All HVAC,” said Arbeeny. “We have six or seven trucks and we sometimes get 20 tickets a day. They just never let up and we always have to go to New York to fight them, but we can only fight 10 tickets at a time. It’s so inconvenient to have to go to New York every time rather than appeal them here in Brooklyn. It’s a burden and a shame,” explained d Arbeeny.

“I have to send one of the guys out to replace me every time I need to fight a ticket and it takes all day, between travel and standing in long lines,” said Liu. “We’re a small operation and I need all my people. It ends up hurting business a lot.”

Quaglione views the process for disputing tickets as an inconvenient and inefficient one. He said his goal is to ease the burden on people and give them the opportunity to fight back against the parking ticket violations that have become overbearing and expensive.

Quaglione, deputy chief of staff to state Sen. Marty Golden (R-C-Bay Ridge-Southwest Brooklyn), is one of three Republicans running in the GOP primary on Sept. 12 for the seat in the 43rd City Council District. His opponents are Bob Capano and Liam McCabe.

The Democrats running in the Democratic primary, also set for Sept. 12, are Justin Brannan, Kevin Peter Carroll, Rev. Khader El-Yateem and Nancy Tong.

The seat is currently held by Democrat Vincent Gentile, who is term-limited and cannot run for re-election.