Parking department outlines plan to add enforcement officers, cites $8M revenue target; council wants audit of assumptions

Parking Commissioner Justin Booth told the council that the department’s recommended budget increases enforcement capacity and upgrades equipment to improve collections and customer service.

Booth said the department aims to add nine parking-enforcement officers as part of a build-up that would enable more consistent meter enforcement across shifts and fix broken kiosks and signage. "We have money in the budget to fix [kiosks] so we can actually then enforce and make sure that we are generating the revenue off the meters as we should," Booth said.

The budget projects about $8 million in additional parking-related revenue through expanded enforcement, tow-and-storage income and repaired meters; Booth said the estimate is based on historical per-officer revenue and comparable prior performance. He also confirmed the Traffic Violations Agency (TVA) has been moved from the executive office into the parking department to consolidate operations.

Council members asked for granularity before accepting the estimates: how many tickets per officer were assumed, how much towing and winch fees contribute, why overtime remained high and whether the school bus-arm camera contract that partially reimburses a proposed new processing technician is finalized. Booth said some increases are conservative projections and promised detailed staffing and revenue breakdowns at the workshop.

Why it matters: The parking revenue assumptions feed into the general fund and were cited as part of administration efforts to reduce levy pressure. Councilors said the city needs verifiable, replicable calculations before relying on parking and collections to offset large tax increases.

Next steps: Booth will provide an enforcement-shift revenue analysis, overtime breakdowns and documentation on the bus-arm camera contract at the budget workshop.