The company, formerly known as Datacom Systems, was also at the center of the parking bureau's scandals in the mid-1980's.

The parking bureau stopped the manhunt for the 28 because they had been issued no summonses since the beginning of the year.

Mr. Ameruso has not been charged in relation to the bribery ring, although the parking bureau was under his supervision.

The dismissals were arranged through documents filed with the parking bureau by Ms. Mitchell, she said.

Instead, he said, fines will be paid to the parking bureau, which will reimburse the outside agencies based on the actual collections.

The parking bureau does have a policy for dealing with such inconsistencies.

That premise may be tested this year when New York City awards contracts to speed collections at the parking bureau.

"I never got a notice or a warning," said Cynthia Nikitin, who was at the parking bureau last week trying to liberate her car.

The charges stemmed from his illegal use of his political influence to sell hand-held computers to the parking bureau.

The parking bureau relied almost entirely on in-house collection efforts because of a scandal two years ago involving kickbacks from private collection companies.