Thomas Breen photo
2 of city’s 3,000 meters: 300 are usually out of service at any given time.
Parking meter revenue collection is down by over $600,000 in comparison to this time two years ago, and by nearly $150,000 in comparison to this time last year.
A dispute with one of the city’s mobile-phone-app contractors may partly explain the drop.
According to the city’s November 2019 monthly financial report, the most recent report published by the city finance’s department, the city has collected $2,114,803 from its 2,862 parking meters so far this fiscal year, which began in July.
As of November 2018, the city had collected $2,260,121 in parking meter revenue that fiscal year. And as of November 2017, the city had collected $2,720,739 thus far.
The latest monthly financial report shows the city adjusting down the amount of parking revenue it expects to have collected by the end of the fiscal year in June. Originally budgeted at $7 million, that number has been bumped down to $6.3 million.
These declining parking meter revenue numbers are evident not just in the November monthly financial report, but also in the Fiscal Year 2018 – 2019 (FY19) pre-audit report, which the city finance department published in September. That report shows parking meter receipts coming in at $5,788,563, over $1.2 million less than the $7 million budgeted for last fiscal year.
In an email statement sent to the Independent Thursday afternoon, city spokesperson Gage Frank pointed to one third-party vendor as a source of most of the parking meter revenue fiscal headache.
“As parking meter revenue is reported down over the past few months,” he wrote, “the City of New Haven is currently reviewing and assessing the meter accounts collected by a third-party vendor. The City has seen fallen collections from the vendor and is currently taking steps toward collecting funds from said vendor.”
In a subsequent conversation, Frank identified that third-party vendor as Passport, Inc., a North Carolina-based company that is one of two vendors the city employs to allow for customers to pay parking meter tabs through their mobile cellphones.
“They owe us money,” Frank said.
The other mobile pay parking meter vendor the city uses is called ParkMobile.
“Mayor Elicker has been notified of these discrepancies, and we are looking into these revenue issues with an additional review of the account,” city Acting Budget Director Michael Gormany is quoted as saying in the email release. “Right now, we are awaiting payment from one of our parking vendors.” That is, from Passport.
A spokesperson for Passport, Elizabeth Strickert, admitted that the mobile pay company owes the city money. But, she said, the city owes Passport money, too. Because, she said, the city’s contract with the company expired last summer.
“Passport provides the City of New Haven a mobile parking payment application – the “Go New Haven” parking app – and enforcement software to enable the issuance of parking citations. Passport does not collect the city’s parking meter revenue,” she wrote.
“The company has been in ongoing conversations with the city since the summer of 2019 regarding the billing for Passport’s enforcement software. Although Passport’s current contract with the city has expired, we continue to operate in good faith and provide services for the city’s parking and enforcement operations.
“We are committed to our partnership with the city and are continuing to work toward a resolution for the payment of outstanding balances due to both parties.”
When asked about Passport’s statement that it “does not collect the city’s parking meter revenue,” city transit chief Doug Hausladen (at right in above photo) responded that, for the purposes of the city’s financial reporting, Passport does indeed. That’s because the city counts mobile pay for parking meters as revenue collection in its monthly reports and annual budget.
Hausladen added that, of the city’s nearly 3,000 parking meters, roughly 300 are broken or out of service at any given time.
The meters go out of service include when a meter needs a battery replaced, when the city has placed a bag over the meter to accommodate a construction zone, or when there is some other kind of malfunction, such as a blocked credit card reader or a problem with the screen. He said he has four staff dedicated to fixing meters.
He also said that this broken meter number has been pretty consistent in recent years, and is not necessarily one of the explanations for the parking meter revenue decline.
In total, the city has 15 multi-space smart parking meters (meaning that one can pay with a credit card or a mobile phone, and not just with coins), 2,047 single space smart parking meters, and 800 single space coin-only parking meters.
Per Section 29 – 65 of the City Code of Ordinances, Hausladen pointed out, city drivers still have to pay for parking—even when the meter is broken.
Travelers can pay through their mobile phones or through a pre-paid parking voucher card bought at City Hall. If not, even if the meter is broken, that parker is liable to get a ticket.