I had hoped that the Parking Authority PR push would lead with a positive info rich piece on changes to the parking lots, improvements made, where they are located with the eye on the neighboring towns who visit here. Instead we get the boot. I suppose its a good thing that the parking pirates get nailed if they don’t pay up. But, the zealous enforcement of tickets in the first place is something I could use less of.

The Parking Authority needs to increase use of the parking lots as a revenue generator. How about merchant parking passes and advertising?

The Advocate reports:

Before PayLock was hired to immobilize the vehicles of those owing three or more past-due parking tickets, on-street meter revenue in South Norwalk averaged $68,000 per year from 2005 to 2007.

For the first nine months of fiscal year 2008, after PayLock was on the job, revenue from 169 parking meters in South Norwalk jumped 37 percent to $109,000, according to figures released by the city.

The SmartBoot system employed by PayLock allows the owner of a booted car to instantly unlock the device once payment is made by credit card. Use of the devices apparently has scared straight even the most confirmed parking ticket refusnicks, officials said.

Consider the parking violation revenue: City figures show that parking income has risen from $698,000 from July 2006 through March 2007 to $1.446 million for the same period ending March 2008.

“The ultimate goal of any enforcement system is not to raise revenue; it is to make believers out of people in the rules of the system so they park in accordance with the rules,” said Director of Public Works Hal Alvord, who called PayLock a huge success. “It is making believers out of people who get parking tickets and don’t pay
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them.”

“We are changing habits,” said Frank DelMonaco, who manages LAZ employees in Norwalk. “Where people are now pulling up to a meter, they will err on the side of caution and put a nickel, dime or quarter in the meter because they know we are there.”

DelMonaco said parking enforcement is taking place on a consistent basis. Because the boot is a potentially instantaneous and inconvenient penalty for those who owe on three tickets or more, he said more people are paying their tickets promptly throughout South Norwalk. The city manages parking at the Webster Street parking lot, Maritime Garage, Haviland Deck and 169 on-street spaces in the neighborhood.

PayLock also has differed in its approach to parking scofflaws by providing follow up with those who don’t pay their tickets, DelMonaco said.

New Jersey-based PayLock follows up with a van with rooftop cameras and a computer. While driving around at up to 40 mph, the cameras pick up images of license plates on both sides of the street, and the computer, with a flashing red screen and honk, picks out those cars whose owners owe multiple city parking fines.

When the vehicle is found, one of the front wheels is immobilized with a SmartBoot device that cannot be unlocked without a combination.

To get the combination and disconnect the locking mechanism, vehicle owners call the PayLock center in New Jersey and pay their unpaid parking tickets - plus an $85 boot fee - by credit card. Cash payments also can be made at the Maritime Parking Garage during business hours.

Then the vehicle owner turns the boot back in at the Maritime Parking Garage. If the owner does not pay in 24 hours, the vehicle will be towed.

PayLock keeps the $85 boot fee and 20 percent of the ticket amount owed, DelMonaco said.

From May 2007 through March, the company made $33,228 in boot and ticket fees. During that period, the public paid $80,000 in back tickets after their cars were booted, city figures show.

Alvord said after the city wrote letters to people owing parking fines and announced the boot program last year, “we had people coming out of the woodwork paying multiple tickets so they wouldn’t get locked.”

“It is working. They are making money, and we are making money,” DelMonaco said. “But more importantly, we are seeing a significant increase in compliance.”

Since the program started, the number of vehicles booted has drop.

During the first month, 54 cars were immobilized and eight were towed. Six months later in November, 10 cars were booted and two towed. But in March, 21 cars were booted, city figures show.

By the end of last month, a total of 203 cars had been booted, with 19 towed.

City Parking Authority vice Chairman John Federici said hiring PayLock was one of the best things the authority ever did.

“There are people who go by the rules, put the money in the meter,” Federici said. “Then there are the ones who refuse to pay. And they are getting caught, and that is a good thing.”

source: Advocate, City gives parking scofflaws the boot, By John Nickerson, 04/27/2008