Annapolis to lower off‑street penalty, modernize citations and expand outreach after parking presentations

At the Sept. 9 Transportation Committee meeting, city staff and parking contractors reviewed summer occupancy and enforcement data and described operational changes tied to City Council resolution R 21 25 and related ordinance language. The department outlined steps to reduce off‑street penalties, automate citation issuance and expand outreach to address public concerns about downtown parking fines.

Marcus Moore said the resolution distinguishes on‑street and off‑street enforcement and that the current approach will change for garages. “So the on street violations, which is expired meter, still remain unchanged at $50 a citation ... When we talk about off street, we're specifically talking about our garages. So those violations as per this r 21 25 reduces that 50 to $25 plus a processing fee of $5.25 and the cost of the parking session,” Moore said. He told the committee staff and contractors were coordinating to set a common start date across garages and hoped to have the system operational in early October.

Contractors from SP Metropolis and Premium Parking reviewed occupancy, session and citation data for June–August and described enforcement practices. John Kemp of SP Metropolis and Jason Perola of Premium Parking presented slides showing session counts, peak occupancy periods and a three‑month nonpayment rate. Premium Parking reported that nonpayment sessions represented about 2.46% of transient sessions across the three months and that vehicles with repeated unpaid sessions were about 0.45% of total sessions.

Committee members raised a ParkMobile-related issue in which a parker paid for a different zone code from their original parked location (because the phone’s location or entered zone differed), creating a separate paid session and exposing the car to a citation. Premium Parking staff described a complaints-and-appeals practice labeled “good intent” voiding: operators review appeals and will void citations when they can see credible evidence that a user paid in good faith for another zone or experienced an app error. “We did establish... the good intent approval, with Marcus and Vicky's office to make sure that when we can see in any place... good intent from someone, they tried to use the system... we have a blanket approval to void those when we see it,” Jason Krolla (Premium Parking) said.

Contractors also explained enforcement timing and collections. Staff said unpaid citations may be referred to the Motor Vehicle Administration after a period of nonpayment (the committee heard a 60‑day reference), and contractors described daily bandit (repeat nonpayer) reports staff run to help field teams place notices on repeat offenders' vehicles. City and contractor staff said they were revising the automated citation workflow so issuance in garages would be consistent across operators and so the system would free staff to provide customer service rather than perform manual citation issuance.

Committee members urged the city to increase outreach to residents and businesses to address the perception of harsh enforcement. Contractors and staff offered a range of measures: first‑time or good‑intent adjustments, promotional codes and resident-validation tools, QR-enabled “start/stop” sessions, and a planned visitor-center outreach event on Sept. 23.

Moore said staff will coordinate with the city manager’s public-information office to announce changes and will return with financial and operational reports on implementation.