This Staff Report conveys staff=s recommendations for amendments to the Municipal Code which would facilitate enforcement of parking fee requirements applicable to beach parking lots. A proposed ordinance implementing staff=s recommendations is attached.

Historically, beach parking fees have been collected either by parking attendants or through an Ahonor box@ system in which fees are deposited in boxes corresponding to particular spaces in the lots. Attendants staff the larger lots regularly throughout the year, and visitors pay a fee to the attendant upon entry. This system of fee collection is quite effective except as to the visitors who enter the lots during those hours when no attendant is on duty.

In the smaller lots, when there is no attendant on duty, signage directs visitors to insert payment into the honor box slots corresponding to the numbered spaces which they occupy. However, the honor box method is problematic. Many visitors fail to deposit the fee, and there is no efficient means of enforcement because there is no readily visible indication of whether a visitor has paid the fee. Recently, in an effort to improve the revenue control system the City has begun replacing the honor boxes with a newer technology, APay and Display@ Machines, which accept payment and provide a receipt. Visitors place their receipts on their dashboards, providing visible proof of payment.

The proposed amendment to Municipal Code Section 3.04.050 would address each of the three means of fee collection: attendants, APay and Display@ machines and AHonor Boxes.@ It would also prohibit removing a parking receipt from another=s vehicle. Finally, it would specify that a violation is an infraction punishable by a fine of $38.00, which is a standard fine for parking in violation of City signage.

Judith Meister, Beach Manager
Marsha Jones Moutrie, City Attorney
Norman Wegener, Chief Deputy, Criminal Division
Claudia Thompson, Legal Admin. Staff Asst.

 

A. Parking Lots with Attendants. No person shall park a vehicle in a public parking lot with an attendant on duty unless he or she has paid the posted parking fee and displayed the receipt for payment on the vehicle. Any person who parks in an attended parking lot when no attendant is on duty shall pay the parking fee when exiting the lot if an attendant is then on duty. If a vehicle is parked in an attended public lot without a parking receipt, it shall be presumed that the vehicle entered the parking lot when there was no attendant on duty.

B. Parking Lots with Pay and Display Machines. No person shall park a vehicle in a public parking lot with a Pay and Display Machine unless he or she has paid the posted parking fee and displayed the receipt reflecting payment on the vehicle.

C. Parking Lots with Honor Boxes. No person shall park a vehicle in a public parking lot with an Honor Box unless he or she has deposited the posted parking fee in the slot designated for the space in which the vehicle is parked.

D. Removal of Parking Receipts Prohibited. No person shall remove a parking receipt from another=s vehicle in a public parking lot.

E. Penalty. Any person violating this Section shall be guilty of an infraction, which shall be punishable by a fine of Thirty-Eight Dollars ($38.00).

City Attorney