TAKING ACTION - PEF President Roger Benson announces the union's plans to file suit over the downtown Albany permit-parking plan during a December news conference at PEF headquarters. - Photo by Jim Hair

PEF sues over Albany permit-parking law

By Kara E. Smith

PEF President Roger Benson took the union's fight against the new Albany parking-permit law to court last month, filing a lawsuit in state Supreme Court after Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings signed the measure.

"It's unfortunate the mayor and Common Council have forced Albany taxpayers into a lawsuit with PEF when we easily could have worked this out," Benson said in a news conference last month in Albany. "We told City officials we could support a limited residential permit-parking system once a new parking garage was completed. Their December vote was premature."

The lawsuit seeks an injunction against implementing the permit-parking system on the grounds that it illegally limits public use of public roadways. PEF won its lawsuit against a similar residential permit-parking system in Albany in 1988.

Nine of the 15 Albany Common Council members voted in favor of the new permit system. The plan charges residents $15 and everyone else $785 for an annual permit to park on designated downtown residential streets.