The Municipal Services Committee met 05/24/2021. During that meeting they reviewed the 2020 Annual Parking Utility Report.
Director Paula Vandehey said that typically her department was always excited to present the annual report and list all their accomplishments, but they didn’t get much done in 2020. Fairly early in the summer of 2020 they came to the committee and talked about the different projects that we were going to postpone because they knew revenue was going to take a hit. They postponed over $500,000 worth of projects and rebudgeted them for 2021. They’re hoping to get some of those done, but there are still some that they will probably have to postpone for another year. Some projects, for safety reasons, will have to happen this year.
She said that the day after the CDC changed the masking guidelines, they had businesses call and ask to activate parking permits. She mentioned one business activating 70 and another 30. They are hoping that revenue will start increasing soon and that will then provide the funding to do some of their projects.
She also noted that they spent more in 2020 than they brought in as revenue which she said was not a good practice to get in. They did have reserves and cash on hand which they had to dip into. In 2021, they have also budgeted to spend a little more than they anticipate making, but after that they start projecting that they will start making and saving money again. She hoped that it would just be a year or two of some bad times after which they will work their way out of it.
Alderperson William Siebers (District 1) noted that in 2015 the number of permit holders was 2,581and in 2017 it was 2,562. He understood that number would be very low in 2021, but in 2016 it was fewer than in 2015 and 2018 was lower than 2017. He wanted to know if the number of permit holders was going down.
Director Vandehey said that that number was always one snapshot in time. She thought it was October 1st of each year. But there had been some businesses that had left Downtown. She mentioned that Salytics had 800 permits in the yellow ramp. When a business decides that their employees are going to work from home that one business can have a huge impact. She said that ThedaCare moved out one year and took 200 permits with them. But they’ve also had some apartment complexes come in and that might add 50 permits. There’s an ebb and flow to the number of permits.
Alderperson Siebers wanted to know if those numbers were going up or down. If they were going down then they had a problem.
Director Vandehey said that in 2019 they thought things were starting to go up again because the number had increased from 2018. But then 2020 happened so whether those numbers would have continued to increase they couldn’t tell.
Alderperson Siebers asked what her projection for 2021 was.
That number was in the budget book but she didn’t remember precisely off the top of her head. She thought they kept it pretty low because they didn’t know what was going to happen with Covid. She thought they kept it close to the 2020 number for budgeting purposes..
Alderperson Siebers asked her how they were going to do the projects that they felt they needed to do without the revenue that they needed to do them with?
Director Vandehey said they will have to talk to the Finance Department and the mayor. She said that, as an example, they will have to close down the parking ramp stairwell that’s closest to the Performing Arts Center if they cannot use whatever revenue they have to fix that stairwell because it’s to the point where the structural engineer says they shouldn’t continue to keep it open. They know that the PAC is looking to start holding shows again, so that was an example of a project that they thought it was important to find funding for. On the other hand, the Red Ramp elevator was a project they felt that they could postpone. She said they were going to reprioritize all of the projects in their 2021 budget and propose to focus on those they felt were really necessary.
Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15) said that in judging the long term impact of having fewer permits and fewer daily visitors, he assumed that they would have to readjust the long-term budget for the parking utility to prioritize safety upgrades that need to happen versus upgrades they would simply like to have happen. Outside of that, he wondered if there had been any ideas about how to get more people to use downtown parking such as perhaps offering some incentives. He knew they had looked into some of those ideas in the past and some had worked and some had not. In terms of just trying to be creative in the long term, he wondered if the staff would be looking into that?
Director Vandehey answered that they were hoping that, with the community getting healthier, that special events would increase. They make a lot of money on special events and they took a $10,000 hit on Octoberfest alone last year when it was cancelled. Special events will help the parking utilities as will having people be able to come to restaurants and bars and shop downtown. They’re hoping that just trying to get back to normal with visitors will improve revenue. As far as promoting people coming downtown, she didn’t think that was within the parking utility’s bailiwick. She did note that they probably would not look at increasing rates in the near future.
Alderperson Doran wondered if there was a way to incentivise using the downtown parking for people who would normally choose to park outside of downtown. He also assumed that they would be looking into whether some of the federal dollars that were coming in could potentially be used for some of the upgrades that they’ve had to put off.
Director Vandehey said that the mayor and the Finance Department had talked that morning at the staff meeting of going through and making sure that any items they put on the list for federal funding qualified. She said one of the things they did ask to be put on the list was lost revenue for the parking utility. She said they thought it qualified. She said Mayor Woodford wanted to put together a list, almost like an executive budget, of how city staff believes those federal funds should be used. Ultimately, that will come through the Finance Committee and then the Common Council.
She said the parking utility staff would be arguing for their fair share of those funds. She noted that when the vaccination clinic was open, they provided free parking in the red ramp, so they did lose revenue and tried to be a good partner with everything that the city did regarding Covid.
Alderperson Brad Firkus (District 3) asked if the project outlook for this year would change if they were to get the green light on some of the funding requests?
Director Vandehey indicated that it would.
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) wanted to know if the permit requests that came in after the CDC changed the mask guidelines came in from a single company or from multiple companies. Could they gauge whether it was a single company coming back or multiple parking users returning?
Director Vandehey said there was no one particular business responsible, but she did note that there was one business that called the next day and activated 70 permits.
Alderperson Fenton somewhat lightheartedly pointed out that the number of citations had not decreased. They seem to have just as many people disobeying parking rules as usual.
Director Vandehey said that was actually a really good point and was glad she brought it up. She thought that number was a little misleading because it was not just all metered citations. They have a vehicle that drives around and fines people parked incorrectly in handicapped stalls or for four hours in a two hour zone or on the street overnight from 2-5. Those citations were for more than metered parking.
Alderperson Doran wanted to know how much use the bike parking facility in the green ramp had received over the last year. He thought that with Covid it was probably hard to gauge, but, anecdotally, he wondered if it was seeing much use.
Director Vandehey said it had some use but that was minimal. It was not as high as she would like to see. She thought they needed to keep educating people on the fact that this is an option. She said it is a nice, secured option. It was hard to tell why use was not where they wanted it because the pandemic happened shortly after they opened the facility. She thought that this summer would be a better gauge of its success.
Alderperson Prohaska returned to the discussion of citations and asked if the city was going to start enforcing the rules regarding Bird electric scooters. He has seen a lot of people driving them on the sidewalk of College Avenue and leaving them in people’s yards.
Someone off microphone (possibly the attorney) said that would probably be beyond the scope of the agenda for this meeting.
Alderperson Prohaska lightheartedly said he was pointing it out as another revenue source.
Alderperson Siebers said that, for the record, District 1 has an overnight 2am-5am parking problem which is growing. He didn’t know what the solution was. Sometimes he thought they didn’t do enough enforcement. Other times, he thinks people are having a hard time finding places to park. He said that if they wanted to make some money they could start enforcing the 2-5 rule in District 1.
Aldereprson Prohaska joked, “We need to get on the [Police] Chief. We’ll get you your money.”
Nobody else had any other questions so Alderpreson Firkus finished out the meeting by saying, “It’s good to hear that we’re definitely seeing some growing trends and hopefully a little bit of relief will be coming this way, but, hey, it looks like we weathered the storm and we’re in a good spot, so thank you.”
[I didn’t come away from the meeting feeling that Appleton was in a “good” spot. I didn’t get the sense that it was in a terrible spot, but it did sound like there are decisions that will have to be made. I would also expect that what the Parking Utility is facing is not unique among city government departments, nor would I expect the solutions to vary all that much from those touched upon in this meeting–i.e. a return to normal, pre-pandemic behavior by the public, reprioritizing projects, government relief funds, an increase in citations handed out, and, if necessary, raising fees.]
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