Council hears mobile parking-payment pitch; vendor recommends $1-per-hour starting rate

Vendor representative Josh Dieter presented a mobile parking-payment system to the Steubenville City Council and answered detailed questions about pricing, hardware and enforcement.

Dieter said the vendor is transaction-based and typically recommends starting "with a $1 minimum per hour," while emphasizing that the city sets the rate. He told council there are no starter fees but noted any required hardware would be a one-time capital expense and the vendor can ship and install equipment or work with local installers. "We are a transaction based model…we typically recommend starting with a $1 minimum per hour," Dieter said.

Council members repeatedly raised enforcement and staffing concerns. City Manager Jim Mavromatis told members that the city will need ordinance changes to route parking violations through Municipal Court. Law Director Costa Mastros said a draft ordinance exists and explained how fines could be handled through the court system as civil, not criminal, matters; he added that the state legislature removed the ability to place a license block for unpaid parking tickets in April of last year. "Legislature took that away in April of last year," Mastros said.

Dieter also offered data and mapping support to help the city set payment zones and discourage circling behavior; he said the system can work on public and private lots and that revenue collected from privately owned lots would go to the lot owner unless the city and property owner agree otherwise. The city directed staff to follow up with the vendor and to pursue any necessary ordinance updates before committing to a specific pricing or enforcement model.