A couple of years back, when city officials were collecting community input about downtown parking, they were repeatedly asked why they themselves were allowed to park free at the Civic Centre.
It was a good question.
Sault Area Hospital charges both staff and visitors to park on its property.
So do Group Health Centre, Sault College, Algoma University, Ontario Lottery Gaming Corp. and the Sault Ste. Marie Courthouse.
In Sudbury, Thunder Bay and Timmins, full- and part-time city employees and members of the public all pay to park at their respective City Halls – as much as 82 dollars a month at Tom Davies Square in Sudbury.
With the provincial government twisting arms of municipal governments to find new revenue sources, it might have seemed a no-brainer when Sault Ste. Marie was asked this week to consider charging city employees to park at the Civic Centre.
As it turned out, the issue is far from simple.
For the second time in as many years, city councillors rejected the idea as pitched this week by Ward 3 Coun. Matthew Shoemaker.
Ever since the Civic Centre was dedicated on Dec. 16, 1974 by then-mayor Ron Irwin, no one has paid a thin dime to park there.
"Visitors have never had to to pay for parking at the Civic Centre or any off-site municipal office or building," says Tom Vair, the city's deputy chief administrative officer for community development and enterprise services.
"The only municipally-operated paid parking is the on-street parking downtown and the 10 parking lots in the downtown core," Vair says.
In a report submitted Monday to Mayor Provenzano and city councillors, Vair described a tangled web of complications involved in switching the Sault to paid parking.
First off, there are questions of fundamental fairness.
Our City Hall, it turns out, is a little different.
It's built on reclaimed land on the St. Marys River, at the site of the old ferry dock.
Unlike its counterparts in Sudbury, Thunder Bay or Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie's Civic Centre isn't located on a block within the downtown core.
It actually has on-site parking.
The City of Sault Ste. Marie has 1,112 direct employees, spread across 18 locations:
- Bellevue Marina
- Bellevue Park
- Cemeteries
- Civic Centre (north and south lot)
- Ermatinger-Clergue National Historic Site
- Fire Station #1 - Tancred
- Fire Station #2 - Second Line
- Fire Station #3 - 100 Bennett Blvd
- Fire Station #4 - 65 Old Garden River Rd (EMS)
- GFL Memorial Gardens
- John Rhodes Community Centre
- Landfill
- Northern Community Centre
- Public Works
- Transit Centre
- Transit Terminal
- Wastewater Treatment Facilities
- W. J. McMeeken Centre
If we charge for parking at the Civic Centre, should we also impose paid parking at these other city facilities?
Almost half of the city's 1,112 employees are part-timers or students, for example food-concession workers or lifeguards with limited hours.
Should they also be forced to pay for monthly parking passes?
"Locations such as the cemetery and landfill which are remote, or locations such as the Northern Community Centre, [GFL Memorial Gardens] and John Rhodes which have large lots largely dedicated to visitors and utilize significant part-time or youth employees, may need further consideration should parking fees be implemented," Vair says.
And then there are the labour relations issues.
"There is a potential for the net benefit to be reduced should a parking fee be challenged by union members and it proceeded to arbitration. Similarly, if fees are imposed they may be brought up as an item in the next contract for collective bargaining with each local union. A resultant increase in wages would negate some of the cost savings of implementing parking fees," Vair says.
On top of that, there's the question of whether it's fair or cost-effective to charge employees to park without similarly charging visitors to city facilities.
Is sauce for the goose also sauce for the gander?
"If we're going to charge our employees to park, as citizens, then everybody should be," says Ward 1 Coun. Paul Christian.
"I have a problem saying to city employees that you've going to have to pay for parking," Christian told this week's City Council meeting.
"They're still citizens of the city. These buildings and all of our facilties are for the public and the people of Sault Ste. Marie, which they're a part of."
"If we're going to charge our employees to park, as citizens, then everybody should be.... If we're going to go down this road, all citizens have to pay for parking," Christian said.
"Most of those facilities that charge employees for parking are charging anyone who comes to the site," says Ward 4 Coun. Rick Niro, who nonetheless doubts that will ever happen in the Sault.
"Certainly, if it was decided to charge the public, it would have a negative impact on participation rates across all programs and events," Vair says.
Parking tickets
"Many of the public visitors to City Hall are already attending the site to pay a fee: tickets, building permits, licences, etc. This parking fee would be in addition, which would further discourage compliance in many cases," Vair adds.
Vair sees further complications when city employees get parking tickets.
"A city staff prosecutor cannot prosecute a city staff person as it would be considered a conflict. If vehicles are ticketed and the ticket is challenged, the city would incur legal costs retaining outside counsel."
Other potential wrinkles in the parking fabric:
- should city fleet vehicles be charged to park at the Civic Centre?
- should the mayor, city councillors, senior staff and contractors be given free passes?
- will city tenants such as the Economic Development Corp., Innovation Centre, Port of Algoma, Soo Greyhounds, Sault Gymnastic Club, Superior Sports Training be allowed to park free?
- 45 spots in the Civic Centre north and south lots are permanently assigned to the owner of the former Algo Club (Montana's) property
- will members of the general public be allowed to buy passes to park in the Civic Centre lots?
- should city employees be expected to fully cover the costs of parking lots that are mostly used by visitors?
Then, there's the cost of switching to and enforcing paid parking, compared to potential revenue.
Will we really be ahead financially if we switch to paid parking?
Vair says to install entry and exit gates at every city-owned parking lot, complete with payment acceptor and access control software, would cost in excess of $1 million, plus annual maintenace estimated at $2,000 a year.
Putting two pay-and-display units at every lot would cost $302,557, with the same annual maintenance – $2,000.
Vair's report to City Council included two loss/benefit calculations, both based on 80 per cent of city employees paying for monthly parking passes.
One, designed to recover only the costs of sweeping, plowing, sanding and line-painting parking lots, achieved annual revenue of $91,420 from employees making monthly parking payments of $8.56.
But when the $125,990 cost of three new bylaw enforcement officers was factored in, that scenario resulted in an annual loss of $34,570.
Vair's second calculation also included costs of tarring and stripping not done annually. It made an annual profit of $125,990 a year on $13.80 parking payments, reduced to just $21,394 when the cost of enforcement officers was included.
Despite this week's second rejection of his idea, Coun. Shoemaker plans to keep pushing it.
"Charging something like a dollar a day could result in approximately $100,000 in revenue for next year," he says.
Charging the going parking rate for public service employees would bring in $300,000, Shoemaker reckons.
"I don't know what the right rate is for parking for city employees, but I know that the current rate of zero is not the right one."
"The broad trend across the public sector in Sault Ste. Marie...is that public sector employees pay for parking," Shoemaker says.
"I don't think it's going to generate a heck of a lot of money. I think it's going to consume a bunch of time," says Ward 5 Coun. Corey Gardi.
And if Shoemaker gets his way and a special city committee is set up to explore paid employee parking, Gardi says the issue will just come back for final decision by a City Council that's already said it dislikes the idea.
"I don't think this can be done in an equitable manner," says Ward 2 Coun. Lisa Vezeau-Allen.
"I think we also need to take a look at and respect staff time. I think having staff work on a different model for revenue generation would be more beneficial because I don't think that we can can agree on anything to make this a fair process in terms of paid parking," Vezeau-Allen says.
On Monday night, City Council rejected Shoemaker's proposal six-to-three.
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