HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-31-20 Public Comment - C. Baker - Public Comment on Parking PermitsFrom:Claire Baker
To:Agenda
Subject:Comment on Parking Permits
Date:Friday, July 31, 2020 6:13:29 PM
Dear City Commission,
I have learned of the proposal to raise the price of the parking passes by another 50% this year.
This is a 300% increase over the $15 it cost/permit a few years ago. I understand severalthings:
1. The notes from the 1993 commission meeting says that the district was set up to berevenue neutral. The Code says, "that the fees for the permits and the fines for violation
of this chapter of the Bozeman Municipal Code are to be set so they generatesufficient revenues to offset the expenditures of the program; and those fees may be
adjusted on an annual basis." As reported by Mr. Meece, the revenue from the parkingpermits does not fund the program and the City has - against the Code - suggested that
the imposed parking fines will not go to the program. Basically, the city is expecting thehome owners to be paying for the entire program by raising the permit prices.
Meanwhile, the city is making $100,000 in revenue from fines. Not only does this goagainst the Code, it seems extremely unfair to the homeowners. Shouldn't the burden of
the program fall onto the people parking illegally, not the people paying for the permitsand the taxes for the street maintenance? I live at 807 S. 6th Avenue - one block from
the University. Shouldn't the University shoulder the responsibility of their students,staff, and employees who aren't parking on campus? Was this program set up to protect
parking for residents or to make money for the city?2. This program is not elitist. We are not hoarding valuable parking spaces. Every parking
place on our block is accounted for and paid for by residents. In fact, we even have asystem in place to make sure we can fit everyone's cars. Sometimes, if there is someone
on the block using a visitor permit, I have to park a block away. We have four teenagerson our block who will be getting driver's licenses in the next 12 months. However, due
to the lack of parking, I know all the families are trying to figure out if getting anyadditional cars even makes sense. If there were not a parking permit program, with the
current overflow of campus parking (far worse now than in 1993 when the program wasestablished), I would very easily have to park two blocks away from my own home.
This is unimaginable with kids, cellos, backpacks, groceries, etc. 3. I heard the revenue from parking passes went down last year. I know that our family
decided to buy fewer passes because the price had jumped up. We used to purchase twoparking passes and two visitor hang tags. In 2019-20, we only purchased one parking
pass and one guest permit. We are now scraping by with the minimal number of permitsour family needs.
4. The new parking system allows the officer to simply drive the streets, scan all cars, andissue tickets. For the most part, the officer doesn't even have to get out of the car. The
City cited the tremendous cost savings for this type of program because one officerwould be able to cover so much more territory in a single day (I found several
references to this benefit in articles in the Chronicle). If the officers are covering theparking areas more efficiently, and the citation revenues have not gone up this year,
doesn't that indicate that the parking system is working and we've reached some sort ofbalance with the patrolling and the violators?
5. If you need to balance the budget of the program through the permit revenue, and yourefuse to count the fines revenue as noted in the Code, you need to fire one of the
officers. Then, allow permit holders to report people parking illegally and the officer onduty can come issue the ticket.
6. Did the 2020-2021 revenue projection from fines near Bozeman High School changefrom 2019-2020? It should be important to note that hundreds of students are going to
be moving to Gallatin High, alleviating parking in the BHS lots (assuming that the lotswon't be occupied by construction parking). Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume
there will be fewer fines generated by students parking in the neighborhood. How doesthis impact the rates for the University area?
And, related to parking but not the permit increase, here are a couple more thoughts:
7. With the digital tickets, the car owner doesn't know they've been issued a citation untilthey receive a ticket in the mail. This summer we had six tickets pile up on my inlaws'
car which was parked on our block. I thought I'd correctly put them on our visitorpermit. Only through a pile of tickets arriving in the mail in North Carolina did we
realize that I hadn't "deleted" a car in the portal and so they weren't on the permit. Theticketless citation has issues. Additionally, the portal is clumsy (you have to click
a minimum of 8 times to put a car on the visitor permit). Everyone I know prefered thehang tags. Perhaps there could be a way for a hang tag to be scanned just like a license
plate to validate the use? I know this might mean the parking officer might have to standup to scan the hang tag.
8. Last year I learned that Contractor's permits are significantly less than resident permits($10 vs. $30?). My husband is a contractor so I asked if we could purchase that less
expensive pass and use it for his car. I was told no, that wasn't allowed. I will also notethat he was remodeling a house one block from ours and received parking tickets for
being too far from our house and not having a second parking permit for construction.This system seems extremely finicky.
I propose that the revenue from the permits and fines match the costs of the program.Based on the increased surveillance and the lack of an increase of parking tickets, I do not
think the program's budget should increase to match the revenue (if anything, perhaps thesurveillance is over saturated and could even be reduced some). Therefore, the price of theparking permits should be reduced to balance the budget.
Thank you for your consideration, Claire
Claire and Ben Baker
807 S. 6th AvenueBozeman, MT 59715
406-599-9457