Royal Oak

Parking meter enforcement hours to extend to midnight

By Jeremy Carroll
C & G Staff Writer

ROYAL OAK — Royal Oak officials approved a plan to extend the time for parking meter enforcement to midnight in a move to bring in additional revenue from visitors feeding the meters and tickets from parking fines.

Downtown meter fees, which have been enforced between 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., will soon be enforced from 11 a.m. to midnight Monday through Saturday under the plan. City officials said this would bring in approximately $300,000 in additional revenue annually. There are no meter fees on Sundays.

“No one wants to pay these fees, everyone wants free parking — but the reality is it is a significant source of revenue,” said Commissioner Jim Rasor.

The decision came as the City Commission met for the fourth time in a special session to comb over the budget June 3. The discussion at the meeting moved from parking to the water system to the possibility of additional taxes. The budget was expected to be passed at the June 7 regular meeting.

The new times will start as soon as the meters and signage can be changed over, which could come as soon as July 1.

“I don’t know if it could be done that quickly, but that’s a good goal to have,” said Department of Public Service Director Greg Rassel.

Worried about confrontation from possibly inebriated patrons receiving tickets, Police Chief Chris Jahnke said he would prefer a plan to end ticketing at 11 p.m. for a trial period.

“I would not be opposed to 11 p.m.,” he said. “Going to midnight might be troublesome.”

The previous police chief, Ted Quisenberry, recommended against moving to 10 p.m. from a previous cutoff time of 9 p.m. for the same reason, but Jahnke said there have been very little issues since that change was made in 2007.

But each change of time costs the system $45,000, it was noted, so the commission unanimously voted to move the end time to midnight now.

In addition to the enforcement hour changes, the commission also unanimously voted to raise the cost of the Center Street parking structure to $5 in the evening starting July 1. The current cost is $3 per vehicle.

“It would likely push some traffic to the other structures,” said City Manager Don Johnson.

If there was no loss of cars heading into that lot, however, Johnson said, the rate increase would bring in an additional $117,000 annually.

The attempt to get more revenue out of the parking system comes as the city is facing as many as 57 layoffs in various departments, including police and fire. But Commissioner Patricia Capello presented a plan that she said would save enough money to possibly keep six police positions and three fire positions set to be chopped — in addition to saving 12 police positions and six fire positions for half of the year.

Capello’s plan would take approximately $460,000 from the motor pool fund and $467,000 from the information services fund balance to pay for the retained positions.

“It’s a one-time fix, and it’s risky,” she said. “I’m raiding the information services fund balance. It is the least, worst situation that I can come up with.”

The plan, which didn’t require a vote, was to be incorporated into the budget presented June 7.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Jeremy Carroll at jcarroll@candgnews.com or at (586)279-1110.