Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Parking Fees topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee questions fairness of wallet fees after city shifted processing costs
Summary
Committee members said charging both wallet loads and subsequent wallet transactions discourages wallet adoption; staff estimated absorbing wallet fees would cost roughly $400,000 annually and agreed to return with a cost and equity analysis.
Multiple committee members raised concerns that the current wallet pricing model penalizes users who pre-load the in-app wallet and then are charged again when they spend that balance. A committee member said the change from the prior structure "sticks in my craw," noting users previously charged only to load the wallet were not then charged on each spend. Karina Sanchez said much of the fee structure is set by financial institutions but confirmed the city negotiated Passport session fees down from 47¢ to 30¢ for wallet activity.
Staff said absorbing wallet fees would require a city subsidy and provided an initial estimate in the low hundreds of thousands: "What I can do is get a number from the finance team of how much it will look or how much it will cost to the city if they were to choose that on the wallet alone...when I looked at it, it was about $400,000 per year," Sanchez said. Committee members asked staff to return with a formal analysis of options, equity effects and potential trade-offs before making a final recommendation.
