Parking issues are never far from the forefront of city council and resident concerns.
Recently, District 6 Councilor Giovanni Recupero filed a motion requesting that the city manager look into ways to increase overnight parking enforcement.
“One of the biggest problems we have is parking, and one of the ways we can eliminate people from parking all over the place is going out at night and enforcing the parking program,” said Recupero. “I don’t see too many people enforcing it, I don’t even know how many we have.”
City Manager Fidel Maltez said the city has a contractor that provides enforcement of the regulations working in tandem with police.
Overnight, he said there is one car with two employees who patrol for parking violations, along with one police officer. Maltez said the police handle issues such as towing cars that park in front of hydrants, while the parking enforcement contractors issue tickets to cars that violate the city’s parking permit program.
“Today, our parking enforcement contractor provides overnight enforcement seven nights a week, excluding holidays,” Maltez stated in a letter to the council in response to Recupero’s request. “The contractor is very efficient given our density. Over a five-hour window, the contractor does their best to cover the entire city.”
Over the first 11 days in May, Maltez said the parking enforcement contractor issued over 1,000 overnight parking tickets.
“The parking enforcement staff work daily with our parking clerk to address any issues or patterns they notice during the overnight shifts,” Maltez continued. “While the contractor does not cover every street on a nightly basis, the contractor ensures that citywide needs are addressed holistically. Anytime our residents or Councilors inform us of areas where extra attention is needed, parking enforcement makes it a priority to visit the location, whether that be during the daytime or overnight shifts.”
The city manager said there are always areas for improvement, and that the city will continue to evaluate if additional resources should be added to overnight enforcement.
“We believe the impending transition to digital residential parking permits will make a huge difference in the efficiency of our overnight parking enforcement,” Maltez stated. “This change will allow our overnight enforcement team to maximize the use of technology to get through the city at a much faster pace and to address issues in a timely fashion.”