Downtown parking staff to roll out Skidata e‑commerce portal for monthly permits Oct. 1

Downtown Parking Division staff presented an update on a planned rollout of a Skidata e‑commerce (eCom) parking permit system that centralizes permit management, enables autopay, supports an eCom wallet to replace current prepaid HID cards, and integrates with existing Skidata hardware and license‑plate recognition (LPR). Staff said the site is operational and in staff testing, with a soft launch for current permit holders next week and a hard launch set for Oct. 1.

Presenters Ethan Pitney and Kayla Fair described eCom as a web‑based permit portal that will let monthly permit holders manage accounts, add or remove vehicles, view invoices in real time and opt into autopay. Kayla Fair said the city will prohibit eCom signups for a September start date so customers are not double billed; the first available start date in eCom will be Oct. 1 and September invoices will be handled under the existing system.

The system will integrate directly with the city’s existing Skidata parking software so approved permits move into the live access control environment, and staff said that making payments, blocking accounts for failed payments and unblocking upon payment will become automatic. Pitney noted that immediate unblocking after payment will remove current manual delays, particularly over weekends.

Fair described the eCom wallet as a replacement for the city’s prepaid HID cards: customers would buy a prepaid balance (staff used $60 as the example), add multiple vehicles to that balance and optionally enable an auto‑top‑up. The wallet option is intended for infrequent users and for businesses that want to prepay multiple vehicles. Staff said the wallet and pay‑per‑use options could reduce paper ticket printing (currently a large recurring cost) and that the system could eventually support event pre‑payments and QR code entry in place of physical cards.

Staff noted upgrades to hardware and functionality are now possible after a required software update. New paystation hardware would include larger LCDs, QR capability and audible guidance; eventual QR code issuance (to be stored in Apple Wallet or similar) could replace physical HID cards so households or businesses can issue multiple unique identifiers without distributing physical cards.

On data and reporting, staff said credential and transaction logs include entry and exit timestamps and that the system will allow occupancy and usage analysis. Staff emphasized privacy and said the division intends to anonymize data used for operational and market analysis rather than track individuals. Payment options will expand to accept American Express; eCheck and other methods are under discussion with IT and Skidata.

Staff asked committee members for input; members praised the customer convenience improvements and discussed opportunities to use the more centralized data for occupancy and origin analysis. There was no committee action requested on the report. Staff will proceed with the soft and hard launch schedule and follow up on reporting and hardware choices.