City Hall not about to give up downtown parking incentives

City Hall's keen interest in being able to provide breaks on the cost of parking to lure businesses downtown is one of the last points of debate as the City Council moves closer to handing the management of the parking system over to the Downtown District.

The economic-development deal-making that includes parking incentives is not something Mayor Ron Corbett or City Manager Jeff Pomeranz have any interest in giving up, the two made clear in comments at a City Council Budget Committee meeting on Wednesday afternoon.

“Every company I have talked to wants a break on parking,” Corbett said after the session.

At the meeting, Pomeranz went into detail about negotiations apparently under way or that had been under way with a firm considering a move to downtown and in need of a couple hundred parking slots. The firm, he said, is concerned not only about price, but is insisting on upgrades to the parking system that include improved lighting, security cameras and “beefed-up” security patrols.

Doug Neumann, president/CEO of the Downtown District, made reference to two economic-development negotiations that have occurred even as the city and the district try to finalize an agreement to hand over the parking management to the district.

Pomeranz thought he and Neumann could find language in the agreement that would not tie the city's hands to use parking as an economic-development incentive.

The Budget Committee voted 3-1 to move the proposed agreement on for discussion by the entire council on Dec. 14.

Corbett voted against the agreement. He has been a proponent of free monthly parking for a decade as a way to get businesses to move downtown.

Another sticking point in the agreement is the Downtown District's request that the city pay the district $4 million in a lump sum or over four years to cover all the major repairs needed to the system that the city has put off for years.

Corbett and others on the Budget Committee said they didn't want to commit to selling bonds to cover the parking system's capital improvement needs until they know what else they may need to invest in elsewhere in the city.

Casey Drew, the city's finance director, said the city routinely sells $30 million in bonds a year to cover capital improvement projects, and that city departments already have submitted requests for three times that amount for proposed improvements.

Council member Chuck Wieneke suggested the city only fix what is needed to be fixed in the parking system for public safety or other emergency reasons.

In the end, Pomeranz suggested that any agreement between the city and the district simply note that the council acknowledges that the system has deferred maintenance needs for which the council can set some targets to achieve.

The district's Neumann said the absence of a $4-million commitment from the city on deferred maintenance was not a “deal breaker.” However, the “idea” of city support on deferred maintenance was a “pretty fundamental point,” he said.

Nine city employees in total, a few of whom are part time, will be offered private-sector parking jobs - in most instances with reduced pay and benefits - under the proposed new parking arrangement. The union employees among the nine will be able to obtain other bargaining-unit city jobs which are open and for which they are qualified. In some instances, they can bump less-senior employees from those jobs, though Wieneke said he thought some city jobs had been left open purposely so parking employees could move into them.