Parking hurdles curdle dairy biz
The owners of a small milk-delivery firm say they’re getting milked by the de Blasio administration with tens of thousands of dollars in parking tickets they can’t contest because hearings have been suspended since the coronavirus pandemic hit in March 2020.
The city Department of Finance’s refusal to resume in-person hearings or even hold them virtually over the past 19 months on parking tickets clashes with Hizzoner’s own criticism of the state judiciary for its sluggish reopening of the courts and slowwalking criminal cases.
“We’re not Amazon. We’re not UPS or FedEx or a billionaire-dollar company. We’re a small business trying to survive,” said Matt Marone, co-owner of Manhattan Milk.
Co-owner and partner Frank Acosta, who was profiled by The Post last year as a hunky milk deliveryman whom women swoon over, said: “This policy doesn’t make any sense. It’s almost forcing us to close the company and start somewhere else — like Florida.”
Manhattan Milk delivers milk in glass bottles to homes as well in larger containers to charter schools, hospitals and day-care centers throughout the city.
The partners said Manhattan Milk employees were “essential workers” last year, making deliveries of milk and other food, including taking subcontracting work from others who stopped making their own deliveries.
“This is how we get rewarded,” Marone said of the summonses.
They also claim they got hosed with tickets when drivers were forced to double park outside alfresco dining spots, which gobbled up 8,550 parking spots.
The sour milkmen say they can’t challenge some of the $30,000plus in parking tickets that could get dismissed in a live hearing — such as $115 tickets for double parking while making deliveries.
“We want an opportunity to challenge these tickets and have them dismissed,” Acosta said.
After more than a week of inquiries, the Department of Finance confirmed that live hearings are being held only for noncommercial drivers, not commercial delivery firms.
“Administrative law judges have been required to work in Department of Finance (DOF) offices since October 2020. In addition to conducting in-person hearings for passenger-vehicle violations, judges have been conducting commercial hearings based on evidence submitted either via mail or e-mail,” a spokesperson said.
“DOF will soon be allowing inperson hearings for companies that wish to contest their violations.”
Trucking delivery firms say that contesting tickets through the mail is a laborious process, and that they’re less likely to be dismissed.
“There’s no one to speak to. There’s no judge,” an industry representative said.
Some companies participate in the city’s “stipulation” program, in which firms plead no contest and agree to pay reduced fines. Ten large companies benefit from 70 percent of the reduced fines under the program, a source said.
Industry sources say the dismissal rate for commercial tickets have plummeted from fiscal year 2019 — when hearings were held — to 2021, when they weren’t.
“How does it make sense to penalize the delivery companies who aren’t in stipulated fine [program] and instead actually follow the law and provide documentary evidence and affidavits that PROVE they were making an expeditious delivery?” one industry source wrote.
“For a city that is trying to combat congestion, this is quite the bizarre way to do so.”