Baltimore's parking authority could be stripped of a program that allocates scarce on-street spaces in the city's most desirable neighborhoods, amid concerns of mismanagement by the head of the agency.

Two city councilmen are backing a plan that would transfer the residential parking program to another department.

The proposal is the starkest evidence to date of a revolt in an agency which normally operates quietly but whose operations are keenly followed by residents of car-choked blocks in Federal Hill, Mount Vernon and other areas where parking is a cherished commodity.

The move comes only weeks after five parking authority managers urged the agency's board of directors to oust Executive Director Peter E. Little. The employees' charges included that Little oversaw the selection of new permitting software that one critic said is so flawed that it's a "mistake from which the program might never recover," and that Little has mishandled the agency's budget.

Little said the new software program that debuted last April is an improvement but acknowledged his organization has had some "challenges" in the transition.