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City parking manager outlines revenue shortfall, equipment upgrades and staff authority to raise rates
Summary
City parking services presented 2025 revenue and expense figures, explained ongoing device replacements across roughly 1,700 spaces and said staff can raise rates within a council-set cap (up to $0.50 twice a year); commissioners pressed for enforcement, staffing and how extra revenue would be used.
Justin Ray, the city’s parking services manager, told the Transportation Commission on Monday that downtown paid parking generated most of the department’s revenue in 2025 and that the program is carrying heavy debt and equipment costs.
Ray said the department brought in just over $5 million in 2025, with about 67% of revenue from paid parking, 17% from permits and 14% from tickets. He described major expenses including roughly 45% of the fund going to debt service and ongoing payments on loans for parking equipment refinanced in 2024, both of which continue through 2028.
Ray outlined a citywide device-replacement program that will update equipment in about 105 zones covering roughly 1,700 spaces, replace legacy coin-only meters, and expand credit-card and mobile payment options. He said ParkMobile accounts for the bulk of app-based transactions and that the city receives a small per-transaction revenue share from the app.
When commissioners asked about rate authority, staff explained that a 2023 council action set maximum hourly rates and authorized staff to raise rates up to $0.50 per change, no more than twice per year, without returning to council. Ray described a planned near-term rate increase calibrated toward occupancy/turnover (staff cited a 85% block-face occupancy target) and said increases can be lowered as well as raised.
Commissioners pressed staff on compliance and enforcement strategies, staffing levels and what would happen to revenue once parking debt is repaid. Staff said education and tickets are primary compliance tools, additional staffing is needed to improve downtown enforcement, and some future revenue would be reinvested in operations and system upgrades once debt obligations ease.
The presentation also covered tickets and collections: staff wrote about 37,000 tickets in 2025 (with roughly 81% for nonpayment), and the city shares some ticket revenue with the airport and gets partial administrative revenue from collections and immobilization for serial violators.
The commission’s questions focused on implementation details including surge pricing and technical limits posed by legacy coin meters, staffing plans to improve enforcement, and whether additional revenue would be earmarked for downtown streetscape improvements. Staff said technology and staffing constraints limit immediate surge pricing and that reinvestment priorities would be shaped as revenues stabilize.
