NO NEW METERS
City council denies funding for mayor’s plan for new parking meters
TRENTON » City council has sent Mayor Eric Jackson a violation.
Trenton council rejected $1.2 million in funding for a new parking system on Thursday, which Jackson’s administration was counting on to secure additional revenue flow for the city.
The bond ordinance required five votes, but only four council members voted in the affirmative.
A trio of council members, Marge Caldwell-Wilson, George Muschal and Phyllis Holly-Ward, abstained from the vote, which sunk the chances of the funding gaining approval from the 7-member board.
“I’m not convinced that the city is equipped to enforce parking and I’m not convinced about the projected revenue that they’re going bring in,” Caldwell-Wilson explained Friday of her vote. “The city’s not doing a good job.”
When the funding measure was introduced last month, Business Administrator Terry McEwen told council he expected the new parking system to generate $2 million annually for the city.
The city was looking at smart meters that would accept coin, credit card and app. The new system could have also been modeled similarly to Philadelphia’s parking, where meter kiosks are utilized rather than standalone meters.
Currently, only 70 percent of the city’s 990 meters are functional and the antiquated devices only accept coins, city officials previously said. The city also has only four parking enforcement officers on staff.
The system’s deficiencies allow drivers to secure free parking in Trenton by finding broken meters.
“I do think that we need smart meters in the city of Trenton, but that means we’re going to have to hire more people to enforce parking to take care of it, to handle it appropriately,” Caldwell-Wilson said. “Parking violations go on all over the city and they’re not enforced.”
An outside vendor completed a downtown parking management plan for the city in January.
The study outlined that the city must address the misuse of handicapped parking placards, the broken meters and reduced enforcement. All contribute to the lack of short-term parking in Trenton due to the fact that the spots are used all day.
However, Muschal said Trenton ignored a different study that was completed by the Trenton Parking Authority at the agency’s own expense. The South Ward councilman said the $2 million revenue projection was a “total lie.”
“We’re not going to make that money back with $1.2 million,” Muschal said Friday. “We have four parking authority vehicles with four people doing it. According to the parking authority, it would take 20 cars and 20 people to get after the meter violators to make the $2 million. They totally lied to get that passed to get the money and I wasn’t going to fall for that dirty trick.”
Caldwell-Wilson said the city’s business administrator also told council that the revenue from the new parking system would prevent fire department layoffs, which have been mulled recently to deal with a projected budget shortfall.
“By the time you get these bonds sold, and you do a (request for proposal), and you bring in a parking company, and you get those meters, that’s going to take a long time,” the North Ward councilwoman said, denying that the revenue would help the fire department’s situation. “So it’s not a solution to our problem right now.”
Caldwell-Wilson said she would still have discussions with the Jackson administration and that she could change her mind eventually if she felt “more comfortable with it.” The councilwoman said the city has not told her how the parking money is collected and where it goes.
“I need to know all that information,” Caldwell-Wilson said. “I’m just not comfortable right now supporting it.”
Jackson did not return a message seeking comment.
Later Friday, city spokesman Michael Walker said in an email that the administration will “represent the ordinance at a future council meeting.”
“The administration will continue to provide council members with any information that they need to secure their approval for the administration’s work to modernize the city’s surface parking system to make it more efficient and customer-friendly,” Walker said.