City Councilman Vincent Gentile (far left), with a copy of the parking ticket in hand, explains the parking ticket appeals process to the Iannicellis. Eugene Iannicelli (middle) received a $115 ticket in December for double parking while picking up his ailing wife (right) from a dialysis center. Gentile calls the ticket insensitive and is fighting to have it overturned.
The Bay Ridge Councilman is demanding the parking enforcement agency and the Finance Department show some compassion and dismiss the $115 parking ticket given to a constituent who received the violation after picking up his legally blind, 85-year-old wife from a health treatment center.
Mrs. Iannicelli, who suffers from diabetes, had just come from dialysis treatment and was too weak to walk a long distance. To assist her, Mr. Iannicelli doubled-parked his car near the front of the facility. While walking his ailing wife back to the vehicle, a parking agent placed a $115 parking ticket onto Mr. Iannicelli's car.
“This is yet another example of the city's insatiable appetite for revenue,” said Gentile. “The city must stop filling its coffers off of the backs of honest and hard working New Yorkers. Mr. Iannicelli was merely assisting his disabled, legally blind wife into the vehicle, when the traffic enforcement agent, totally devoid of discretion and compassion, drove up and slapped a $115 ticket on Mr. Iannicelli's windshield. When is enough, enough? When is our City going to realize that we must treat residents like partners, not targets with bulls-eyes painted on their backs? I call for the dismissal of Mr. Iannicelli's summons and a more compassionate approach to enforcing the laws in this city,” Gentile concluded.
This is not the first time Gentile has asked for the dismissal of an unscrupulous parking summons. In 2006, the councilman assisted Rev. Cletus Forson, of St. Andrew the Apostle Church in the Bay Ridge. Rev. Forson was ticketed as he responded to an emergency call from a parishioner afraid her mother would die without receiving her last rights.
“I see examples of this all the time. Here we have a city agency that is all about the dollars and cents. But this is people's lives and wellbeing we're talking about,” Gentile said.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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