Recommendation to Consider Approval of the Recommended Parking Enforcement Program Staffing Plan and Provide Direction to Staff on a Long-Term Parking Management Policy. (Public Works 224)
Yes. Okay. All in favor. I oppose the motion passes 4 to 1. Thank you. All right. We move on to item six C. Recommendation to consider approval of the recommended parking enforcement program staffing plan and provide direction to staff on in long term parking management policy. Okay. I think this is the last item you're going to hear from from us on this is to hear from you. This is a return trip on parking enforcement. We were here a couple of months ago talking about parking enforcement. I won't repeat that presentation, but the Reader's Digest version was we came to tell you, we were very concerned about our parking enforcement program here in Alameda. It was not it's we felt I think we use the word broken and we were looking for your direction on ways. We presented four different ways to sort of move forward to fix it. You pointed us in the way that we felt. We got actually a very good direction from the council that night. We came back to the office the next day and thought about what you would all said, and it became very clear to us very quickly the way we need to go, which is in brief, a sort of the approach that our neighbors in Oakland and Berkeley have taken, which is you build a parking enforcement division through a combination of full time and part time city employees. What we're bringing you tonight is we're asking once again for a sort of a a vote, telling us that we're headed in the right direction. So what we're saying here tonight is we'd like to start building and improving that that that our parking enforcement staff we would like to add two full time parking enforcement officers to start . This is, as you remember from the last report, this is not sort of like and well, let me just say what we're recommending, two full time non sworn parking enforcement officers, continuation of the existing part time positions. But we want to increase those salaries to become competitive with the part time salaries that our neighboring cities are offering . And this is sort of the first step. What we want to do is we want to get started. We want to start building this. Program getting a little bit better. We want to start charging for parking at the ferry terminals. We want to start doing a better job collecting at the meters in the parking lots so that our plan is to be back in front of you on on just the enforcement thing. Probably in another year, we hope to be coming back because we are with you and saying, you know what? We're on the right road. This is working now. Let's keep building. You know, we think ultimately we're going to need more than this, but let's take one step at a time. So this is sort of an interim, you know, year to two year effort, but we will be most likely back in the future. Our goal, if we do this right as a city, we firmly believe that this can be a program that pays for itself. Hearing the Vision Zero discussion today just made me keep hearing, you know, thinking about this people double parking in their cars in front of school drop offs. You know, why are we not enforcing that? Yeah, we should be enforcing that. These are the kinds of people who can be helping our police department, enforcing those kinds of things. You have been and our public works department has been out there daylighting intersections. You know, it's frustrating. And the last couple of weeks I've seen at least two or three people just pulled up and parked right in the red zone, parked and walked away. Like, you know, if we're not going to ticket them, that's the we can paint all the curbs we want. It's not going to make a difference. So we really it's it's it's time to get going on this. The other goal of this program, which we are going to build with you, we want to keep coming back to you, tracking the revenues, tracking the expenses so we can build it to what we ultimately need over time is to also relieve. Right now, you've got sworn officers who are trying to on the side manage the parking management program. We also see I think they're also trying to manage the animal enforcement program. You need your officers out there enforcing speed limits and enforcing crazy driving activity. So we're trying to build a program over time that not only helps us do a better job enforcing parking, but also lets the police department start spending less time doing this kind of stuff and more time doing, you know, the types of things that sworn officers need to be doing. So that's where we're headed. We'd like your sort of endorsement of this approach. If you say yes, keep going. We will be back very shortly with the necessary budget amendments, job titles and those kinds of things that would be necessary with the department to to it, really effectuate it and get moving. We are racing against the clock. We want to be we want to be charging for parking and enforcing parking not only in Park City and Webster Street, but at the Seaplane Lagoon Ferry Terminal when it opens next summer. So we will be back to you in the very near future with more decisions about parking and parking enforcement around AMI to point. But that's going to be more on the operational side how to charge what to charge those kinds of decisions. But we got to get this enforcement sort of piece of the puzzle sort of moving and in place. So that's all I have to say, and I'm available to answer any questions. Liz Acord from Public Works is here. We foster also our parking and we anyway, we're here. Oh, and Nancy is that. She's right. You're very competent in resources. We know. And do we have any public speakers on this. Side of speaker? Okay. Comments, discussion. Councilmember Vella So I think that this is I like the direction that this is going. I would say that the double parking at school drop offs is part of it. But I also know and I'm not going to name the specific delivery company, but there are certain delivery companies out there that literally have somebody that their whole job is paying parking tickets. And that's because they're trying to make as many deliveries as possible in a day. And I see delivery drivers double parked and parked in red zones all the time. In fact, I saw us daylighting an intersection and the next day I saw a delivery vehicle in that exact spot with the bright red paint on the curb. So I do think that we need enhanced enforcement in this regard. I also think that cost recovery, there is a forward path to cost recovery. I also think that stolen vehicle there's stolen vehicle cost recovery programs, and there's also programs for, you know, rental car companies where they've got rental cars that have kind of stayed out beyond. Where there's different bounty programs to get reimbursement. And I think that there's a pathway forward. So I think that this is a good start and I'm ready to support this. Thank you. And he and Counselor Otis. Yeah, I remember that discussion we had. I didn't know if you guys would be able to formulate anything out of that, but I appreciate the fact that you did. Credit to your credit. Yes, indeed. So I appreciate this is a really good step. And, you know, I always pay the meter on Park Street or Webster Street, so I don't I'm going to keep doing it. I don't want a $30.40 hour ticket. So I'm going to I'll make a motion to approve this. Okay. And, you know, pending some other people's discussions. Any any other comments as councilor. Okay. So it's been moved by Councilmember Odie, seconded by Councilmember decide on favor. I. I. All right. That passes unanimously. Thank you for bringing that to us. Yeah. And so much more coherently than we gave it to you. Okay. Let's see where we are. Well, people you made up for lost time. Um, yeah. Okay. Item seven City Manager Communication. Thank you.