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As criminal justice reform efforts have targeted law enforcement costs, your community has decided that it can save $250,000 per year on policing costs if it can civilianize parking enforcement efforts (day and night). The plan entails not replacing 5 police officers who recently retired and instead hiring 5 civilian parking enforcement monitors. That part has been decided.
The city believes that the way they have been handling parking also needs to be evaluated. Currently your community only enforces daytime meter violations around downtown and parking violations like blocking fire hydrants and parking in no parking zones.
They believe that if they add a night parking ordinance (none currently exists) they can raise additional revenue to reduce property taxes. The new ordinance would prohibit parking any vehicle on any street without a permit between 3am and 6am. Both options they are considering have been determined to result in the same annual revenue. The options they are considering:
1) Charge $10/month for a permit. All violations would result in a $20 fine for parking at night without a permit.
2) Provide all residents of the community 1 permit but add a $50 annual fee to everyone’s water and sewer bill to cover the cost of the permit. Additional permits would still cost $10/month. All violations would result in a $20 fine for parking at night without a permit.
Evaluate the two options and explain the positives and negatives of each. I am looking at your thoughts on user fees, fairness, etc. I am not concerned about the overall budget implications of these options (as they have been estimated to end up with the same result) but looking at your thoughts on individual impacts.
Also, come up with a third option that you think is another way to handle this situation. Explain the impacts. You don’t have to do budget analysis, just give an evaluation of why you think this is a workable alternative.
