City staff provides variety of options for commissioners to consider in covering expenses of Parking Division
At the recommendation of Sarasota City Manager Karie Friling, with the support of the city commissioners, the City of Sarasota parking program likely will maintain through November the hours that were in effect prior to the changes the commissioners approved in May.
That was the ultimate result of an Aug. 31 City Commission workshop on parking. The decision followed about three-and-a-half hours of staff recommendations and a presentation, comments from 11 members of the public, and the board members’ discussion.
During the same time that the former hours remain in effect, Friling said, she and her staff will work on options that had been brought up as a means of enabling the program to pay for itself, as well as improvements for the program.
Moreover, if the Nov. 3 General Election referendum on Amendment 3 wins voter approval, Friling told the board members she and her staff “will need some time to evaluate where we’re at.” The constitutional amendment would cut city property tax revenue in the future.
Further public engagement also will be pursued, Friling said.
After she has all the information gathered, she added, she will schedule a presentation to the commissioners, so they can consider the options.
“Don’t implement anything at this time,” she urged the board members, as she initially sought their support for her recommendations.
Commissioner Liz Alpert was the first board member to agree with Friling’s suggestions.
When Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch asked whether Friling thought it might be later than the end of November before the board members engage in their next parking discussion, Friling told her, “It could be.” However, Friling added, “I think that if we get a certain outcome in the [General Election] vote, some decisions are going to be made very quickly because we don’t have a choice.”
When Mayor Debbie Trice asked for consensus on Friling’s recommendations, no one objected to them.
Ahearn-Koch did ask that staff go ahead and adjust the parking signage to reflect the current regulations, as the signs were changed before the new hours went into effect in late June.
Friling said staff would ensure that the correct signage would be installed.
‘No such thing as free parking’
At the start of the Aug. 31 workshop, Friling reminded everyone that the City Commission voted on Aug. 3 to suspend the changes in parking enforcement that they had approved this spring. (Aug. 3 also marked the date of her very first meeting as the new manager, she emphasized.)
Moreover, Friling acknowledged that those changes implemented following a May 18 vote “generated strong opinions in our community,” which had led to the commissioners agreeing to conduct the workshop that day.
“We should always consider how policies affect the businesses,” which have made investments in the community, Friling added. “At the same time, though,” she continued, “good public policy requires us to consider the interests of the entire community,” including the “residents, employees, visitors [and] taxpayers.”
She did note, “Ironically, today is my three-month anniversary with the City of Sarasota. And, boy, let me tell everyone in this room it’s been a doozie.”
Later, Friling pointed out, “There is no such thing as free parking. Parking garages have to be built and maintained; streets and parking spaces have to be maintained. Technology and enforcement and personnel and operations all have a cost attributed to them.”
She added, “If the person using a parking space does not pay for the costs, the costs do not disappear. They are simply paid from another source.”
Friling also told the commissioners, “The policy question is how [the Parking Division] costs should be allocated and who should bear them … particularly at a time when the city is facing significant financial stresses …” She underscored the expenses related to the recovery from the 2024 storm season.
A city staff slide did show that the city received an extra $112,413.05 during the period when the longer paid hours — including partial hours on Sunday — were in effect. The amount generated could have been higher, Steve Cover, the city’s planning director, reminded the commissioners, as staff did not issue any citations, just warnings, the first week; that period began on June 29.
Then, he continued, the first day when the new hours would have been enforced with tickets was July Fourth, when the city traditionally does not charge for parking. Moreover, he said, the Fourth fell on a Saturday, “which is one of our prime collection days …”
‘Most of our history is without meters’
During the board members’ discussion, in advance of Friling’s recommendations, Commissioner Ahearn-Koch said more than once that she believes the city should remove the parking meters and revert to using timed parking restrictions — from one hour to three hours, she indicated.
“It’s what the city has done for 115 years of our 125-year existence,” she pointed out. The city has had meters for “nine years total,” based on her calculation, she added. “Most of our history is without meters.”
(A city slide said the current meters were installed in 2019. A previous set of meters preceded them; public anger resulted in the removal of that equipment in 2012.)
Earlier, Ahearn-Koch had engaged with Planning Director Cover and Philip Deveau, interim general manager of the Parking Division, about a detail in their presentation that said the city would need to pay $650,000 in the 2028 fiscal year to replace the parking meters.
Cover explained that the new equipment would be necessary as the current meters had suffered “really severe weather impacts,” which had reduced their life span. “The revenues from the meters far exceed the cost of replacing the pay stations,” he noted.
“If we did away with the meters,” Ahearn-Koch pointed out, “we don’t have that expense …”
If the city eliminated its 104 pay stations, Cover told her, “That’s eliminating a tremendous amount of revenue.”
Later, when Ahearn-Koch brought up that idea again, Commissioner Alpert asked her, “What’s your solution for paying for [the parking program], then?”
“I would say we’ve got a lot of great ideas here,” Ahearn-Koch replied, referring to the public comments and emails that the board members had received, as well as the options staff had provided. “It shouldn’t be reduced to one statement right now here at the table. We’ve got a lot of suggestions here about how to pay for [the parking program].”
After Ahearn-Koch reiterated her prior statement about the city’s 115 years without parking meters, Alpert reminded her, “A lot of that time, there were no parking garages to maintain.”
“Sure. … That’s a very good point,” Ahearn-Koch conceded.
A financial analysis needs to be undertaken, she continued, to determine the situation that would exist if the parking meters no longer were in use.
“Is that a problem to look into that?” she asked Alpert.
“It’s not a problem to look into it,” Alpert replied, “but I think when we look into it,” the options staff had proposed should be considered, including the potential of establishing a taxing district with the merchants paying for the parking program, or letting the residents pay for it out of the General Fund, or perhaps a hybrid of options.
The General Fund is made up largely of the city’s property tax revenue. It covers the expenses of departments and operations that generate little to no money on their own, and it is used to fill budget gaps that occur.
“Essentially, somebody has to pay it,” Alpert told Ahearn-Koch, referring to the cost of the parking program.
“Sure,” Ahearn-Koch told her.
At that point, Vice Mayor Kathy Kelley Ohlrich interjected, “This is not an Alpert-Ahearn-Koch debate.”
“It’s a workshop,” Alpert added.
During another part of the discussion, Commissioner Kyle Battie proposed “just upping [the parking fees] 50 cents across the board.”
Planning Director Cover told him that that if the direction were to keep parking free on Sundays and free after 8 p.m., as it was before the changes approved this spring went into effect, the extra revenue generated would be $1,896,450.
Deveau, the interim general manager of the Parking Division, told Battie that that increase would cover all of the division’s expenses, but the funds would be insufficient to pay for capital costs, such as the replacement of elevators in the parking garages. A 75-cent uptick would be necessary for that, Deveau added.
Still, Battie continued to contend that the increase of 50 cents would be sufficient.
At another point, Mayor Trice brought up the need to install better wayfinding signage and to look into ways to help people get to their destinations from wherever they park.
Cover told her, “I think we definitely can improve with that,” indicating that staff already was planning to investigate those options.
Yet one more suggestion, from Cover and Deveau, was using color coding to make it easier for people to know whether they are planning to park in a metered or free zone.
Commissioner Alpert expressed interest in that, as well as the potential of providing what she characterized as “quick pick-up parking [spaces],” which would be free for 15 minutes.
Deveau had noted that the city still allows the option of free parking for 10 minutes in the metered spaces. That can be handled through the ParkMobile app, he said, or at the relevant pay station. All a person needs to do is click on the button for that service, provide the license tag for the vehicle and complete the transaction, he said.
In the garages, Deveau also reminded the board members, the first hour is free. “We’re the only jurisdiction in the region that does that,” he pointed out.
A broader array of parking permits to help bring in revenue and the hiring of a consultant to determine how efficiently the city program is working were further proposals.
‘We need a strategic approach’
Reflecting on the variety of ideas, Mayor Trice pointed out, “It shows we need a strategicapproach to the parking. And one of the reasons that we implemented the paid, metered parking downtown is there are people who say, ‘I want to park directly in front of … where’re I’m going, and I’m willing to pay for it.’ So that was a way to give them what they wanted,” she stressed, along with generating revenue from them.
As for the garages: Trice noted, “The intent most recently was to make them significantly less costly than parking in the street directly in front of where you wanted to go.”
Yet, she continued, “I have heard women saying, ‘I’m afraid to park in the garage; I’m afraid for my safety.’ ”
Injecting some levity into the discussion, Trice acknowledged that the next comment she was going to make “theoretically could get me into trouble …” Nonetheless, she proposed that a solution to the safety concerns would be the creation of a “pink zone” in each garage on the ground floor, in sight of the garage attendant. “So women can park in the pink zone and know they will be safe,” she added laughingly. “But then the thought was … charge a little extra for parking in the pink zone,” Trice said, still laughing.
Looking at Cover and Deveau, Trice continued, “Really, what I’m saying is think about all of the diverse needs. [For example], “What are the specific things the businesses need in the morning for drop-off of supplies … Think strategically.”
Then Trice pointed out that her last day in office will be Nov. 6, three days after citizens cast ballots on the state’s proposed property tax amendment. “And the results of that,” she stressed, “will severely impact whether or not we can pay for parking out of the General Fund.”
Following Trice’s remarks, Commissioner Alpert reprised a suggestion that had been made earlier: the creation of an ad hoc committee whose members would be charged with crafting recommendations. That group could be at work while city staff is analyzing suggestions and everyone is awaiting the Amendment 3 results, Alpert added.
However, City Manager Friling suggested that the board members allow her and her staff to “to do … our own homework first.”
Nonetheless, Friling added, “That doesn’t mean that, as city manager, I can’t reach out and speak to individuals in the community.” In fact, she noted, she planned to attend her first Downtown Improvement District board meeting this week.
“So I think there is an opportunity to still get public feedback,” Friling noted, “but not in a formalized, public ad hoc committee. … We need to get past Nov. 3, and then we’re going to be able to make some really strategic, good decisions.”
An increase in downtown visitor activity in July
Public remarks and emails to the commissioners this summer from business owners, following the extension of the paid-parking hours, emphasized the loss of patrons in downtown Sarasota.
However, during the staff presentation, Planning Director Cover showed the board members a slide providing data for the numbers of users of the metered spaces on Main Street in July 2025 and July of this year.
“The visitor activity actually increased” month-over-month, he noted. “The out-of-market visitors,” he pointed out — an average of 19,650 per day this July — represented 86% of the people using the metered parking spots on the streets, plus the city’s garages. “If you include the inbound commuters, which I believe is within a 10-mile radius,” Cover continued, the number “jumps up to 96%.”
Moreover, he said, “Our [Bay Runner] trolley ridership numbers are up significantly. In the last three or four months,” he added, “the trolley has recorded record ridership in downtown and the St. Armands area.”
Deveau, the interim general manager of the Parking Division, discussed a slide that compared the city’s parking rates with those of other municipalities in the county and in Southwest Florida. “You can see that we are not the cheapest or the most expensive.” The on-street parking fees are “very similar,” he added.
Deveau also presented slides showing the Parking Division’s expected financial situation before the policy change that the board members first agreed to in late March. The big climb in capital expenditures, he explained, is a factor of the need to make improvements, such as the replacements of the garage elevators.
The two elevators in the State Street garage are slated to be dealt with in the 2027 fiscal year, which will begin on Oct. 1, Deveau noted, while the Palm Avenue garage elevators would be replaced in the 2028 fiscal year. The expense for each pair of new elevators was put at $750,000.
Further, Deveau said, staff plans to change each credit card reader on every garage pay station so it will allow tap access.