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Gary committee reviews ordinance to create parking‑meter fund, allow cashless payments and meter EV chargers
Summary
Carla Morgan, corporation counsel, briefed the Ways and Means Committee on CPO 2025-35, which would create a dedicated parking meter fund, permit cashless ParkMobile payments, and authorize charging for electric-vehicle stations; staff will supply revised ordinance text before the June 3 council meeting.
The Gary Common Council Ways and Means Committee on Thursday reviewed an ordinance, CPO 2025-35, to establish a parking meter fund to collect proceeds from meter parking and to specify permissible uses for those funds, including maintenance of meters and related infrastructure and potential metering of electric-vehicle charging stations.
Carla Morgan, corporation counsel, told the committee the ordinance creates the fund and lays out the purposes for which meter revenues can be used. "It creates the fund. It lays out the purposes that monies from the funds can be used for," Morgan said, noting that state law requires the council to appropriate any funds before they are spent.
Morgan said the city is moving toward a cashless system with ParkMobile and that the ordinance updates definitions to allow the city to charge for electric and other alternative-fuel charging stations when appropriate. She listed allowable uses that include meter and signage maintenance, traffic signals, curb and sidewalk repair, parking-lot maintenance for metered lots, and acquiring or leasing land to increase metered parking.
When asked whether the city plans to expand metered parking beyond lakefront areas, Morgan said there is no immediate plan to expand meter parking but that expansion could be considered if the current effort is successful. "Right now, there's no immediate plan to expand it," she said.
Morgan also noted minor drafting issues in the current ordinance (inconsistent paragraph numbering) and committed to providing corrected language and an explicit reference to maintaining charging-station equipment by tomorrow at noon so council members can review the amendments prior to the June 3 council meeting.
The Ways and Means Committee did not vote on the ordinance on Thursday; members were told the item is expected to go before the full council at the June 3 meeting.
