Middletown parking advisory committee debates fee increases, staffing and kiosk rollout

Middletown — The Parking Advisory Committee on Tuesday debated modest, phased increases in downtown parking rates and proposals to add enforcement staff and replace street meters with kiosks to reduce maintenance costs and improve payment options.

The meeting opened with the committee approving the August minutes; the chair recorded Leslie as abstaining because she was not at that earlier meeting. Chair (speaker 1) framed the rest of the agenda, distributing a copy of the parking advisory ordinance adopted in June 2021 and warning that some recent public communications had spread “misinformation” about the committee’s authority. “We are not supposed to be using our positions as committee members to influence and try to change what we’re to do,” the chair said, urging members to avoid outside advocacy that misstates the committee’s role.

Staff (speaker 3) told the committee the city’s parking study is complete and available on the city website. “The version that’s been circulated, dated May 9th, 2024 — that’s the final,” staff said. The committee then turned to the department’s finances and the case for raising rates. Staff read revenue and expenditure figures during the meeting; staff reported revenue of $1,456,157.96 but also read an expenditures total in the meeting transcript that appears inconsistent with that revenue figure. Committee members asked staff to verify those totals and to provide semiannual revenue/expenditure reports going forward.

Members flagged several operating costs that are sometimes omitted from headline figures — snow removal, sanding and salting, street sweeping, trash pickup, lighting and meter/kiosk maintenance — and said including those items substantially increases the department’s operating costs. One member estimated that adding those line items could move the shortfall toward roughly $1,000,000 annually, and several members said that reality strengthens the case for modest, phased rate increases.

The committee discussed a prior request to raise hourly on‑street rates from $1.00 toward $1.75; that proposal was returned to the committee at the General City Council level. Committee members said they prefer incremental increases (a quarter‑dollar at a time) across several years so downtown pricing stays competitive while generating funds for enforcement and maintenance.

Legal guidance on surcharges was a decisive point: staff reported that Roger contacted the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection and relayed that state law “prohibits business from charging customers surcharge for using one payment type,” but does allow offering a discount to customers who pay with cash. The committee discussed whether kiosks could be programmed to treat credit‑card payments as the baseline price with a separate cash discount, and whether the city’s existing meters and kiosk infrastructure could support a mixed‑pricing approach.

Members also considered operational tradeoffs: the chair proposed hiring at least one additional full‑time enforcement officer and two to three part‑time staff to improve weekend and evening coverage and to reduce safety risks in bottlenecked downtown areas. Staff described current staffing levels and duties: several parking staff also perform meter and kiosk repairs, which can pull them off enforcement duties. Parking staff (Mike, speaker 6) said the city has roughly 500–600 meters and a small number of kiosks; staff reported kiosk connectivity or vendor fees discussed in the meeting at roughly $45–$50 per kiosk per month, meter service fees of about $6.75 per meter per month, and an app service fee in the neighborhood of $0.30 per transaction.

Committee members weighed whether to invest in equipment (small vehicles or three‑wheelers) that could expand enforcement coverage without as much new payroll, and also discussed using a modest rate increase to reduce monthly permit fees for employees, businesses and residential permit holders as an incentive to shift parking off Main Street.

A non‑member in the room asked whether the city could provide data on the split between credit‑card and cash parking payments; staff said vendors differ and that staff would work to compile that information. Several members raised equity and access concerns, noting that seniors and others may be uncomfortable using apps or credit‑card systems and that any shift in payment options should account for those users.

Next steps: staff will verify and correct the fiscal figures presented at the meeting, provide a semiannual revenue/expenditure schedule, attempt to compile vendor data on payment‑type splits, and return with a package of justifications for any proposed rate changes to present to the General City Council in January.