DBIA Pleasantly Surprised with Council Vote on Pay Parking
Tuesday, September 24, 2013 @ 4:00 AM
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Prince George, B.C.- “Pleasantly surprised, rather unexpected”, that’s how Downtown Business Improvement Association President Rod Holmes describes his reaction to the unanimous decision by Prince George City Council against awarding a pay parking contract. It means, the issue of pay parking in the downtown is over, for now.Holmes still supports the use of license plate recognition and towing repeat offenders to get the message out that parking is only allowed for 2 hours in any one spot in the downtown. Holmes says both Nanaimo and Kelowna have effective towing and parking bylaws “ All the City has to do is ‘cut and paste’ we know that bylaw is acceptable to the Province, so it shouldn’t be difficult to get that bylaw approved.”
He maintains a simple license plate recognition program could cost a maximum of $80 thousand dollars.
City staff are expected to come back to Council with a new bylaw before the end of the year that will allow the City to have repeat offender vehicles towed.
Mayor Shari Green was hoping her colleagues would delay the decision until the spring, after a report on converting some downtown streets to angle parking is delivered to Council, but she failed to get any support for that idea. She says the decision to not award the $1.24 million dollar contract, doesn’t solve the problem, “It just delays the inevitable.” She was also disappointed that her colleagues would not support her in her idea of a delay “ I think back to the meeting in July , where 8 of the 9 of us spoke quite clearly that we were ready to make a decision and the 9th person (Councillor Lyn Hall) put a postponement motion on the floor which was ultimately passed because there was a request to learn a little bit more about this and have a few more conversations, and yet the will is not there to show that same courtesy (to her) so that leaves not a great taste in my mouth with my colleagues right now, and I will leave that observation there.”
City staff had prepared a report that said there was an actual loss of $198 thousand dollars from on street parking in 2012, and predictions of a $198 thousand in net profits in 2014 when the new system was up and running.
But for Rod Holmes, President of the Downtown Business Improvement Association, the decision to not award the contract is a good one, “I think its excellent that Council took a few moments to have a sober second thought.”
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And shortly after the meeting, the mayor was reportedly seen jumping up and down, stamping her feet and saying “why doesn’t anyone like me”, LOL ;)
Smartest thing city council has done in awhile
Shari’s going to be mad alright. Stolz and Wilbur are going to have to sit in the corner of Shari’s office today with traffic cones on their heads.
The Mayor did not tell the whole story on the postponement motion that Hall put on the floor to delay the vote so they could get more information and allow the DBIA and Chamber of Commerce to make their proposals at a meeting of the whole.
The motion was carried by a majority vote with the Mayor, Stoltz, and Wilbur voting against it.
Had they put a motion on the floor to delay this decision again, there is no reason to believe that the motion would have carried.
The issue was handled correctly and they should now move forward with the towing bylaw and put this issue to rest.
The City should also take a few of those people with a large number of outstanding parking tickets to court and force them to pay, then send a message to the balance who owe for tickets advising them that they too will be taken to court if they do not pay.
If the mayor is upset because of the council not giving her a chance, wait till next election when she does get another chance and the people vote her out.
I cannot wait until the next election. Not only is she incompetent, she is arrogant. This story confirms everything about her.
“City staff had prepared a report that said there was an actual loss of $198 thousand dollars from on street parking in 2012, and predictions of a $198 thousand in net profits in 2014 when the new system was up and running.”
So basically we just got a tax increase because of this latest flip flop. The downtown businesses should be thanking the taxpayers of PG for continuing to subsidize them.
If the fines (parking tickets) can’t be enforced now why are we paying 3 or 4 meter people to put the tickets on vehicles? It seems to me that we are paying them for walking the street if we can’t collect the fines.
There doesn’t have to be a loss, JohnnyBelt. The City is choosing to have a loss.
I also think you are misinformed on the issue. The problem isn’t coming from the businesses, but government workers that park on the street all day. If there is a subsidy, it is to the government workers, not the businesses.
The City can choose to update the bylaws and start collecting outstanding tickets. If they do that, then there won’t be a loss.
As I understand it, the downtown businesses have offered to:
1) Help pay for a license plate recognition system.
2) Take on any remaining losses with a special levy on their property taxes.
In light of this, I think the City would be crazy not to work with the downtown businesses. There doesn’t need to be this animosity between Green, JohnnyBelt and the businesses.
I think this is is plenty fair because most of the problems are from government–not businesses.
The offer by the downtown business to help offset any losses to the City put the final nail in the coffin on this project.
Fact of the matter is, most people in Prince George, the DBIA, the Chamber of Commerce, etc; were against this proposal.
Those in favour would be the Mayor, Stoltz, Wilbur, and few wayward Citizens, and JohnnyBelt.
50,000 more or less against 8 should give you some indication of who’s right on the issue.
I get it now only government workers can afford cars. Thanks for clearing that up.
Palopu: “50,000 more or less against 8 should give you some indication of who’s right on the issue.”
Pulling arbitrary numbers out of your backside means little, but thanks for that. Even if your made up numbers were true, it’s no indication of who’s ‘right’ and who’s ‘wrong’ on anything. That’s a concept that’s hard for some to grasp.
Again, we have elected people who are afraid to lead without cowering to the loud voices of the various special interest groups in town. I guess we got what we deserved on that.
According to city staff, figures for the amount of tax exemptions that can be granted to places of worship, non-profit organizations, private schools or other eligible tenants already exceeds the 1.5 per cent cap for all applicants.
Again, What the dickens is going on with this city and council? Was there not more than 1.2 million worth of exemptions brought forward that brought the percentage up last year to 1.54 instead of the 1.50 percent tax levy? Who knows what it is this year? City does not seem to want to give a figure out…..why so secretive?
This administration at city hall and council members are costing the taxpayers a heck of a lot of money….
How much have we paid in wasted administration costs in bylaws and planning? How much have we paid in legal costs due to these departments? How much is it going to cost taxpayers again for the next lawsuit slated to come up at the end of the month in Supreme court?
People really need to look at why bylaws and planning departments are not accountable for their jobs…… the way I look at it they also are partially to blame as they give the recommendations. So why did they give it in the first place for the paid parking?
I do not work for the city – I take that back I do – I am a taxpayer :P
For what it’s worth, there never was going to be a profit for the people of prince george, there was going to be a profit for the entity known as the city of prince george. It was going to take 1.25 million dollars plus annual interest and send that money out of the community to a corporation to put in the system. The money then would be paid by people who live in Prince George and surrounding area via parking fees and fines. The entity of the city of Prince George hoped to collect more in fees, than they paid out in loan payments, interest, and operating costs. But at the end of the day, it’s a transfer of wealth out of Prince George to elsewhere of 1.25 million plus interest.
And as for downtown business being subsidized by taxpayers, I have a modest 600 sq ft office downtown that I pay $12,000.00 a year to my landlord for, and of that about $3,600.00 pays for property taxes. Anyone with a 600 sq ft house out there paying the same? Didn’t think so. Downtown business pays lots of taxes.
I call BS on the profit predictions from the new system. I’d like to see the report with the numbers in it. Does anyone know where to find it? Not that it matters now. There were several ‘revenue projections’ outlined in the core review that I estimated to be way out of line.
PG voted to change the occupant of the mayor’s chair, but voted in all but one incumbent councilor. Has anything really changed? Are the residents any happier with Council. If we want meaningful change, then we need to change the face of Council and vote out the councilors that have occupied those positions term after term after term. Have the 3 new councilors done anything to distinguish themselves, or do they vote like sheep, only to flip-flop when the ire of the electorate is raised?
The women shouldn’t of been allowed to run. Again it’s Canada not wanting to vote. It will ruin this country you know. I remember Green standing up in the “Fire Pit.” She stood up with a side smile and said she was all for the homeless in the downtown. No she wasn’t and everyone in that room could see it, but decided to pretend she wasn’t a honest person to be running anything let alone a city with so many issues to be dealt with. There has to be somewhere to make real changes rather than complaining on this site or facebook speak out Prince George pages. Not that it hasn’t helped, it has only because the public is sick and tired of the crap in this place we call Prince George, British Columbia. The Prince gave us a nudge with naming his child after this city, why not make good at that and make some positive changes here. I mean putting a GRC at every corner of the city is not progress, it’s giving in to the the gangs, and crime that goes on. We need to take a stand and do the right thing. Saying it’s non of my business, I work. That’s just the problem. You have to make it your business and not just let the police and these so called politicians do the work for us. They don’t care, they get paid big money to sit in a chair all day and make policy. If you really want to make change you have to put yourself out there and take a chance. Having weak knees is not going to help you. Yes there are those who will hate your guts and try to ruin you or even kill you if they can. I can tell you all this much, sitting around complaining on 250 news is not going to change a thing. All it will do is allow those who keep this community down on it’s knees as it has been doing for a long time here.
sitting around complaining on 250 news is not going to change a thing.
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tormented … this is an interesting point of view for some one writing on News 250
I am not sure of the total impact of the of the opinions expressed here … however, I have seen the reactions in the executive suites of several of PG’s major institutions when writers on New 250 have taken a negative view of the institutions in question … I can also guarantee that these same organizations have their public relations staff monitoring this blog along with others around town in order to gauge public opinion … so keep on writing as “they” are out there in the ether listening
PS … I have NO vested interest in News 250 other than that of a member or the public at large ;-)
Just watched the video of last night’s council meeting….a few observations:
1. The arrogance of Stolz and Green is just simply astounding. Petulant teenagers with the I Know Everything attitude. Make no mistake folks….this is not lack of leadership or the learning curve or any such ideology. Just simple arrogance at its finest.
2. Mr. Wilbur…too late. You are done.
3. Staff: about a third of the top brass has been in my employ for absolute decades and decades – at least two of them and some three. Don’t think for a moment that these lifers-cause-they-would-never-make-as-much-money-as-they-do-here-and enjoy-the-nice-warm-nest-anywhere-else syndrome, don’t play politics and toss the political football around and play power struggle games with mayor and council on a regular basis. IMO the ceiling should be ten years.
Along those lines, does our new City Manager even live here yet….has she invested anything back into the community that she is currently drawing top dog salary from? Just wondering.
Why can’t people read? Nowhere does it say that the pay parking is not going to return to the downtown. Geez All this means is that council is not going to grant the contract to any vendors at this time, it doesn’t say that pay parking is dead.
People like to read more into what is printed than what is not. The city won’t be buying any fancy pants license plate recognition system or fancy pay parking kiosks, at least not for a while. The whole thing needs a good rethink, more time on being financially prudent instead of tossing our tax dollars around like it’s a charitable plan.
Guesswhat, you don’t work for the City – The City works for you, you pay their wages, etc. People forget that we the Citizens are the City and the council & staff work for us. But somehow when they are elected they forget that and the admistration has not been told that they work for the council and the Council is answerable to the Citizens.
How about installing little metal piggy banks on metal poles in lieu of meters. Work it on the honour system downtown. We all have honour, don’t we?
graymare, lol I was being sarcastic. That is politics…..
I think that going back to the “old” system of a municipal license plate that allowed you to street park would bring in enough cash. Why not try that first. Nothing to lose and you don’t really need a plate — just a sticker. Ten dollars a year for 100,000 stickers?? That’s damn good revenue. Put the sticker contract out to tender rather than giving it to friends and you have a win win situation near a million bucks a year. Hey Brian — take that to the next meeting.
JB, not sure about your continued pay for parking fixation, but what was proposed was over the top asinine. I struggle to see how you don’t get it.
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