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| PARKING AUTHORITY MINUTES |
ATTENDANCE: Stephen Bentkover, Chairman
John Federici, Vice Chairman
Victor Cavallo
Burt Shatz
Joe Santo
STAFF: Kathryn Hebert, Administrative Services Manager
Frank DelMonaco, LAZ Parking
Dilene Byrd, Secretary
OTHERS:
EXECUTIVE SESSION- PENDING LITIGATION
Executive session began at 6:30PM
Executive session ended at 6:40PM
CALL TO ORDER
Chairman Bentkover called the meeting to order at 6:42PM
1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Chairman Bentkover said on Page 2, Item 3, Line 9, to change “the close out”
to “exclude”
Mr. Federici said on Page 2, Item 3, Line 6, to change “thing” to “things”
Chairman Bentkover said on Page 4, Item 6, Line 6, to change “Shat” to “Shatz”
Mr. Federici said on Page 4, Item 7, Line 4 , to insert “on the”
Mr. Federici said on Page 5, Item 8, Line 10, to change “of” to “off”
** CHAIRMAN BENTKOVER MOVED TO APPROVE THE ITEM WITH CORRECTIONS
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
2a.AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN OR VICE CHAIRMAN OF THE PARKING AUTHORITY,
TO EXECUTE AN AGREEMENT WITH ALL PHASE CONSTRUCTION FOR PROJECT NO. PKG2008
-1 FOR IMPROVEMENTS AT THE SOUTH NORWALK RAILROAD STATION WESTBOUND SIDE,
FOR A SUM NOT TO EXCEED $112,000
Ms. Hebert said she had received the bid documents back on Monday, February
25, 2008, and that All Phase Construction was the low bidder at $112,000.
She said this is for the repair of the two upper outdoor towers and includes
a total of fifteen doors that have completely deteriorated. She said it also
includes some drainage work between the two stairwell towers. Mr. Shatz asked
if the current doors are all metal. Mr. DelMonaco said that they are.
** CHAIRMAN BENTKOVER MOVED TO APPROVE THE ITEM
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
2b. AUTHORIZE THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS TO ISSUE ORDERS ON CONTRACT TO
THE LOWEST RESPONSIBLE BIDDER. FOR PROJECT NO. PKG 2008-1, , IMPROVEMENTS
AT THE SOUTH NORWALK RAILROAD STATION, WESTBOUND SIDE, FOR A SUM NOT TO EXCEED
$11,200
ACCOUNT NO. 09 04 4031 5777 C0290 ($8,625)
09 06 4095 5777 C0358 ($31,000)
09 08 4095 5777 C0358 ($83,575)
** CHAIRMAN BENTKOVER MOVED TO APPROVE THE ITEM
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
Chairman Bentkover asked about the status of the eastbound side
of the South Norwalk Railroad Station repairs. Ms. Hebert said she had requested
$600,000 in the capital budget for fiscal year 2008-09 and the Finance Director
is recommending $300,000. She said the repairs would include the floors, interior
painting, and the bathrooms. She said that the capital budget goes to the
Common Counsel for their approval on April 15, 2008.
3. MONTHLY FINANCIAL REPORT
Chairman Bentkover said that it appears that most of the surplus revenues
are coming from parking violations and said that he is concerned that they
are becoming dependent on the revenues from parking violations. Mr. DelMonaco
said that the financials in total show that the transient income is still
the vast majority of revenue that is received and said a lot of the money
that is collected is coming from the backlog from years ago and that is was
not budgeted for because it is usually unknown how much will actually be collected.
He said it would never be his recommendation to become solely dependent on
parking violations and said that the budget indicates that is not being done.
Chairman Bentkover asked what will happen when the back log gets down to a
modest level. Mr. DelMonaco said they have budgeted conservatively on what
is collected for fines and at this point there is still a sizable amount of
outs standing fines to collect.
4. MONTHY OPERATION REPORT
Ms. Hebert said that when it came apparent that the money was approved for
the shuttle bus that Jennifer Herring of the Maritime Aquarium had contacted
Mr. Alvord and had requested a meeting because she was concerned that the
Maritime Garage would now be filled with commuters. She said that Mr. DelMonaco
had put together a report for that meeting to show the annuals for last year
for the demands at the Maritime Garage related to the Maritime Aquarium and
said basically for most of the year the Maritime Garage was 30% full and during
their peak times was only 43% full. She said that they never peak consistently
for any length of time and that there is always capacity. She said during
Presidents week, which is their peak time at the beginning of the week the
demands were up 22%, but by the end of the week the demands were down 44%.
She said at the meeting Ms. Herring and the Maritime Aquarium’s Operations
Manager, had requested that during their peak times that the Maritime Garage
be kept vacant. Ms. Hebert said she had told them that is not possible and
had suggested to have a meeting to establish a plan for alternative parking
and one of the suggestions that she had made was to move the employee parking
to the South Norwalk Railroad Station during their peak times and that would
free up approximately 50 to 60 parking spaces. She said it was agreed, that
they meet on a quarterly basis and that she would now be providing them with
the monthly operation reports.
Mr. DelMonaco said the Webster Lot is down 14% from last year but are now beginning to stabilize and said while the demands are down the revenues still maintain a $12,000 positive variance. He said that the North Water and Haviland Deck continue to be consistent. He said that the on street meters revenues are up 33%. He said he is still waiting for the manufacturer to get back to him on getting the meter cards to work on both the on and off street parking meters. He said that the demand at the South Norwalk Railroad Station is good and there is virtually no difference so far this fiscal year compared to the last two years. He said that the security gates at the South Norwalk Railroad Station are now fully automatic and have had no instances so far. He said that the preliminary work has begun on the security camera system and hope to have that completed during the spring. He said that the roof repairs will begin once the weather improves. He said that the change dispensers will be installed in the pay stations next week and said that the television was turned on today in the westbound side of the South Norwalk Railroad Station. He said the bike racks would be installed once the weather improves. Ms. Hebert said that the bike racks were paid for through a grant that Mr. Shulman had gotten and have also gotten the DOT and MTA to pay for another set of bike racks for the East Norwalk Railroad Station. She said there is an avid biker who is planning to do some sort of event to recognize the bike racks and would take place some time in May, 2008 and that the Mayor along with members of the Parking Authority would be invited to attend.
Mr. DelMonaco said the demands on Wall Street are on par to what they have been in years past. He said the demands at the Yankee Doodle Garage are up. He said that permit sales are up 16% to date. He said there will be approximately 200 letters sent out to people that are going to have their registration suspended who have three or more outstanding parking tickets that could not be located through the boot tow program. He also said there is approximately $102,000 in outstanding fine revenues just in the people with three or more outstanding parking tickets and said in addition to that there is approximately $600,000 in outstanding revenue for people who have only one or two outstanding parking violations against their license plate and said that legislatively nothing can be done until they reach three violations but said he would be sending out approximately 7,000 letters over the next three months to urge them to pay their outstanding violations. Mr. DelMonaco said he would like to point out that they are well over budget in the repairs and maintenance account and that it is due to a favorable cash flow and that they are spending a lot of money on the parking facilities. Chairman Bentkover suggested that it be publicized now that the Parking Authority is in a better financial position that we are able to spend the money to upgrade the facilities.
Ms. Hebert said another movie will be coming to Norwalk and they will begin setting up tomorrow on Washington Street and will also take up the North Water Lot and that they have already paid. She said they will be filming in front of “And Company” retail store on Washington Street and they will be using ten parking spaces for approximately three days.
5. CAPITAL PROJECTS
Ms. Hebert said that the repairs at Haviland Deck, Yankee Doodle Garage, and
the South Norwalk Railroad Station have been approved in the next fiscal years
capital budget. Chairman Bentkover said that the repairs on Haviland Deck
would not begin until the end of the summer and they would take approximately
four months to complete. Mr. Shatz asked what the delay was. Ms. Hebert said
that the funds would not be available until July 1, 2008 and then it will
have to go out to bid and once the bids are received back, the contract development
process takes about one month.
6. SOUTH NORWALK RAILROAD STATION- TRANSPORTATION ISSUES
Ms. Hebert said that nothing has been done with the taxis yet because she
is waiting for approval from the Traffic Authority to move the drop off pick
up location to the other side of State Street and that will be done in March.
She said that the shuttle bus will be ready for implementation in September,
2008. Mr. Shatz asked if a vehicle had been chosen. Ms. Hebert said that Mr.
Shulman has that information and that he expects to everything to be in place
by September, 2008. Mr. Shatz asked if the shuttle bus would be operated by
the Department of Public Works staff. Mr. DelMonaco said “no” and that it
would be operated by the Transit Authority.
7. OTHER BUSINESS
Ms. Hebert said that she and Mr. Linnartz had met with Walker Parking who
is the consultants that are working with the Redevelopment Agency on the POKO
development and said the purpose of the meeting was to review the vehicle
and pedestrian traffic during the project. She said that she and Mr. Linnartz
had both had some issues with their plan and have communicated that to both
the Redevelopment Agency and Walker Parking. She said that the property will
not get conveyed to POKO until they have a temporary parking plan that is
approved by the Parking Authority. She said in their agreement they have to
provide 100 parking spaces during Phase I on site for public parking and any
parking overflow will be directed to the Yankee Doodle Garage. Chairman Bentkover
asked when they would be breaking ground. Ms. Hebert said they still need
to get their permits but said possibly by the fall.
8. NEW BUSINESS
No discussion.
9. ACTION ON ANY ITEM DISCUSSED HEREIN
No discussion.
** MR. SANTO MOVED TO SUSPEND THE RULES
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
** MR. SANTO MOVED TO ENTER INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION FOR THE PURPOSE
OF CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
ADJOURNMENT
** CHAIRMAN BENTKOVER MOVED TO ADJOURN
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY
The meeting adjourned at 7:50PM
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