According to a KELO-TV report on January 26th, the city has expanded the hours they are charging customers. Customers used to pay to park in the ramp between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. With the new automated upgrades to the 1st Avenue Ramp, the city expanded the hours they are charging customers to park from 8 a.m. to 6 a.m.
Isn't it interesting that the public finds out about the expanded hours for charging customers to park in the main downtown parking ramp through a local TV station? With all the press releases coming out of City Hall, you would have thought there would have been a new release telling the public of the new parking policy.
I wanted to see when the Public Parking Advisory Board passed this new policy so I went to the city's official website and looked for the minutes to the board meetings. The Community Development section lists the Public Parking Advisory Board and it states monthly meetings are scheduled the first Tuesday of the month at 8 a.m. at Carnegie Town Hall at 235 West Tenth Street.
The Board met nine times in 2009 and 12 times in 2010. It met consistently every month in 2011 through October 4, 2011, except for September when the meeting was cancelled. There are no meetings or minutes listed after the October 4, 2011 meeting. In the upcoming meeting dates section it says: Next meeting date(s) unavailable at this time. Please check back later....
In checking the meeting minutes listed on the website, there is nothing in the posted minutes regarding the advisory board approving the expanded hours to charge for parking in the 1st Avenue Ramp. So, what is the reason for this new policy? Is it to offset revenue shortfalls in the parking system? I thought the hourly parking fees didn't raise significant revenues and weren't something to be concerned about.
Back in December 2011, when the new automated parking system was still not operating and hourly customers were parking for free, City Director Darrin Smith said, "We wanted to make sure that, especially in
the month of December that customers Downtown go shopping, visiting Downtown was
as convenient as possible for them so we've allowed them to park in the ramp." He went on to say that the hourly parking only brought in $50 a day so the implication was it was not a big enough deal to worry about.
If hourly parking fees were not a big deal back in November and December and brought insignificant revenue, why expand the hours for hourly parking to include nighttime hours now? It is a negative increase against Downtown activity in the evening. Will free parking continue on the weekends or is this new policy of charging between the hours of 8 a.m. and 6 a.m. seven days a week?
Did this new policy get reviewed by the Public Parking Advisory Board? It appears not since this Board has not met since October 2011. Where is the transparency in policy decisions promised by this mayor. This new parking policy affects the Downtown. Were the Downtown merchants told of this new policy change so they could respond to questions by their customers and patrons?
This is not a very good example of business acumen, Mr. Mayor! An explanation by the director responsible for public parking and oversight of the Public Parking Advisory Board and its inaction of late seems to be in order. This whole thing seems very strange and certainly does not appear to be an example of being Pro-Downtown as this Mayor professes!
So you can park for free between 6 am to 8 am? Surely Darrin Smith and his parking people meant 8 am to 6 pm because this makes no sense. I especially liked his comments in December when he said the parking fees they get in the ramp are minimal so now he really looks like he doesn't know what he is doing.
ReplyDeleteCome on Darrin, this is a typo, right?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the citizen interviewed in the KELO news story referenced made an inaccurate statement. Nothing in public parking policy has changed with respect to rates or hours. What has changed is the new automated system is much more efficient and effective in allowing us to properly enforce the longstanding policies we have. The previous system was incredibly inefficient in ways only the staff knew, and it was not customer service friendly or technologically advanced in any way. We’ve had numerous compliments from parking customers since the system became operational.
ReplyDeleteMatt Nelson
Public Parking Manager
City of Sioux Falls
Thanks for the information, Matt.
ReplyDeleteThe Kelo story didn't say the citizen said the hours changed. The Kelo story said with the new automated system, the city expanded the hours they charge customers to park, from 8 a.m. to 6 a.m. and that it wasn't sitting well with the citizen. That doesn't sound like the citizen made an inaccurate statement to me. The Kelo story came out on January 26th. How come no one from the city decided to correct this "inaccurate statement" from a citizen until now on this blog. I think Nelson's post is fishy and coming from the spin doctor.
ReplyDeleteYou’re always welcome to contact our office. I’d love to take you on a tour of our facility, show you the upgrades, and get your feedback.
DeleteMatt Nelson
Perhaps the fastest way to resolve this issue would be for Mr. Nelson to state the correct hours during which customers are charged to park. That should eliminate any confusion and avoid pointless debate.
ReplyDeleteParking is free to the public 6pm-6am, weekends, and City holidays.
DeleteNow the question should go to KELO to see why they aired a story without verifying the facts! Journalism 101.
DeleteSince Mr. Nelson makes reference to the "citizen" in this KELO story, did anybody else recognize this "citizen" - it's Mary Johns, Director of Siouxland Libraries! Seriously, the best KELO could find for an objective citizen interview on downtown parking was another MMM appointee on the city payroll???
ReplyDeleteI don't know who looks worse here....KELO TV who did the story or the Parking Department who did nothing to correct the KELO story! Both equally bad.
ReplyDelete