AgdaPkt 2003-02-10 - Laserfiche WebLink

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REPORT To the Honorable Mayor and City t From the City M February 10, 2003 Subject Parking Bail Schedule Revision AA -1 Recommendation The City Council introduce an ordinance amending Municipal Code Sections 20.95.1.C, 20.95.2.6, 20.127, and 20.190, to provide for an increase in the parking bail schedule from $15.00 to $20.00, effective April 1, 2003. Background The City's current bail schedule of $15.00 for parking violations is substantially lower than that of many of our surrounding cities. Those cities maintain parking bail schedules ranging from $16.00 to $26.00 for parking meter violations, fixed time parking violations, and marked curb violations such as green, red or yellow or white zones. The City's parking bail schedule has not been increased since 1998. At that time the City's parking bail fine schedule was the lowest of our surrounding cities. An increase of the parking bail schedule to $20.00 would more closely reflect the parking bail schedules of our neighboring cites and would afford a more effective deterrent to those who would otherwise willfully violate parking regulations for the sake of convenience. The City's parking enforcement results in an average of 24,060 citations issued annually for meter violations, fixed time parking violations, and marked curb violations. The majority of these citations are issued for meter violations. The City Council conceptually approved increasing the parking bail fines by $5 per citation at the budget study sessions that took place in July 2002. At that time staff advised Council that we would present Council with an ordinance increasing these bail fines later this fiscal year. Accordingly, the increased revenue associated with this increase has been included in the revenue estimates for FY02 /03. In July 2002 the Redwood City Downtown Business Group presented the City Council with the results of its membership survey regarding the proposed parking bail fine increase to $20.00. That survey showed 46% of their membership supported the increase, with an additional 31 % of their membership supporting the increase with conditions. The conditional support was based in part on a desire to see more inexpensive multi -hour parking and more enforcement. Only 23% of the membership was opposed to the increase.