City hiring new parking data firm
♦ The original company fails to deliver promised information about downtown habits.
The company Rome hired to analyze downtown parking data oversold its capabilities, leaving city staff to scramble to find another company that could deliver the information needed.
City Commissioners learned during their annual planning retreat Thursday that a new company will take over in March.
Purchasing Director Becky Smyth, recently promoted from parking services manager, was able to provide the commission with comparisons of the number of parking citations written and the annual revenue between 2018 and 2019.
However, she did not have the more detailed information the city had hoped to have by now to help it better plan for the future.
“I don’t want to be in the parking business, but we have a vibrant downtown and want to keep it that way,” City Manager Sammy Rich said in the Courtyard Rome Riverwalk meeting room. “What we don’t want to do is regulate ourselves into becoming a ghost town.”
The city has been wrangling with the best way to manage downtown parking for years.
Leaders knew they didn’t want to resort to putting in parking meters on Broad Street — but they want to be able to limit the amount of time people park downtown for the sake of businesses that rely on high parking space turnover.
Smyth explained that four studies were conducted over the last 10 years. A License Plate Reader system was instituted in 2019 that enabled authorities to determine how long a vehicle was parked in one space.
Currently, drivers are permitted to park for free for three hours between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Since the LPR system went into effect, the number of citations has gone from 1,588 in 2018 to 4,119 in 2019 and revenue increased from $29,660 to $60,521, Smyth pointed out.
However, officials were also hoping to gain information about who is parking downtown, how long they are parking, who the frequent violators are, what the busiest
times of day are and whether people are shifting into the parking decks.
Since the company the city contracted with has not been able to provide that information, staff has been forced to look to AIMS Parking Management Software to get the job done, beginning in March.
Assistant City Manager Patrick Eidson said the contract with the first company required a 60day notice before cutting ties.
Commissioner Wendy Davis said she’s been waiting for more detailed data for the past two
months and didn’t appreciate not being told about the data collection issue sooner.
“I kept anticipating we would get the data,” Davis said. “At no point did anyone tell me what the hang-ups were.”
Commissioner Jamie Doss said that even once they get the parking data, they need to be careful about making any sudden changes.
“If you ever want to take a trip to the moon,” he said, “post about downtown parking on Facebook and you’re on the way.”