Assembly member Fiona Ma Set As Keynote Speaker for California Public Parking Associations 25th Annual Conference

Statement by Don Norte, Program Chair of CPPAs 25th Annual Conference

The California Public Parking Association (CPPA) is extremely honored to announce Fiona Ma as this years keynote speaker for our annual conference set for November 18-20, 2009. Assembly member Ma knows how important it is to tackle the challenge of misuse faced by agencies responsible for enforcing parking disabled placards in the state of California.

We welcome the prospect of taking on fraud and misuse of DMV disabled placards at the State level to improve access for people with disabilities. With Assembly member Mas legislation, known as AB 144, she has spent a great deal of time building bridges to stakeholders in diverse communities affected by this problem. One of the benefits of Ms. Mas advocacy is that she understands the degree and level of abuse faced by agencies across this state and knows that CPPAs commitment to individuals with disabilities is necessary to solve the problem as a statewide coalition.

We must ensure that the foundation is set by local authorities to crackdown on the illegal use of disability placards by being able to implement the provisions of AB144, which allows flexibility to address the issue with fines of up to $1,000, instead of with misdemeanor arrests.

Members of the California Public Parking Association have a prime opportunity to work together to initiate future legislative reform on parking issues throughout the state. The conference will be a way to have a dialogue between agencies and Assembly member Mas participation can set the spark on what needs to be accomplished to improve parking policy for people with disabilities.

Government, personal responsibility and individual liberty are too important for us to let them down."