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Ordinance Committee weighs shrinking parking advisory board, asks legal and police for more data on fines
Summary
The committee considered a proposal to convert the large parking advisory board into a smaller, staff-heavy working group and discussed raising fines for driveway/blocking and intersection violations; Kate Krogmeyer and councilors emphasized staffing, quorum problems and the need for HPD and solicitor input before action.
The Ordinance Committee debated two interrelated parking matters on March 4: a proposed overhaul to the Parking Advisory Board’s membership and a package of orders to raise fines for blocking driveways, crosswalks and intersections.
Kate Krogmeyer, a member of the Parking Advisory Board and the Planning Board, told the panel the advisory body often struggles to achieve quorum and has limited capacity. Krogmeyer said the board devised recommendations to reduce membership and shift day-to-day operational responsibility to city staff — for example, the chief of police (or designee), the city engineer (or designee), the superintendent of public works (or designee), the tax collector or designee, plus one public member — and to designate an existing staff person (likely within the tax collector/treasurer office) to coordinate parking matters and the parking-management contract.
"If it's functioning as a working group, it should be mostly employees who have the expertise," Krogmeyer said, adding that citizen participation remains valuable but is difficult to sustain when meetings must meet quorum rules.
Councilors expressed shared concerns about removing community voice and about how a staff-based group would align with the city’s downtown parking study. Several members argued the committee should seek legal guidance on whether the group should remain an ordinance-created board or be established administratively by the mayor. Chair Meg McGrath Smith and others recommended asking both the city solicitor and the mayor for feedback on structure and naming (board vs. working group).
On related items proposing higher fines for blocking driveways and other hazardous parking, committee members reviewed current ticket amounts (the packet lists many current violations at $25, some larger penalties such as $300 for handicap-space violations and $50 for fire lanes) and asked the Holyoke Police Department to provide enforcement data and neighborhood comparisons before deciding on new fines. The orders on the table discussed raising certain fines (members referenced figures including $75 and an item transcribed as "$1.50" in the packet text; the transcript contains that figure verbatim but its format appears inconsistent with other fines and should be verified against the official order). Councilor Bacon suggested checking how many tickets are actually issued for these infractions and how much it would cost to reprint ticket stock if fines change; Councilor Devine suggested inviting HPD's crime analyst or staff to present enforcement counts.
The committee voted to request HPD and DPW information, to ask the solicitor for legal advice on the parking-board structure, and tabled the amendments until the requested data and legal input are provided.
Next steps: the committee expects written feedback from the Parking Advisory Board on item 8, legal guidance on whether membership must remain in ordinance, and a data brief from HPD on recent ticketing before returning to debate or vote on fines and structural changes.
