PPA Tries To Right The Ship With New Captain
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Philadelphia Parking Authority has chosen a new interim executive director to replace Vince Fenerty, who resigned amid a burgeoning sexual harassment scandal.
The new chief is both a radical departure and uniquely well-suited to the job.
Clarena Tolson knows the city's streets perhaps better than anyone. As Streets Commission for over a decade and more recently deputy managing director for transportation and infrastructure, she sees where parking and taxi's, the Authority's bailiwick, fits into a larger picture.
"I've been a civil servant for three decades now and at my core I am a servant for the citizens of this city. I look forward to the opportunity to create more efficiency, to improve morale and professionalism."
Tolson, though, has served Democratic mayors and the Parking Authority is unapologetically a patronage mill for Republicans.
The state legislators who snatched it from city authority were open about doing so to secure jobs for their partisans.
Tolson says this is no time for politics and board spokesman Martin O'Rourke declined to comment on that aspect of the job.
"Really, this is about leadership and moving forward."
The board also approved revisions to the sexual harassment section of the employee manual but promised a full overhaul.
