Taking a cue from Mayor Mark Smith, who two years ago vowed to reduce the size of municipal government, the Bayonne City Council is poised to abolish the Bayonne Parking Authority and set up a Public Utility that will be under the direction of the town’s public safety director.
The public will get to comment on the proposed ordinances at the Dec. 14 meeting of the City Council.
Earlier this year, Mayor Mark Smith proposed eliminating the BPA as well as the Bayonne Local Redevelopment Authority as part of a downsizing of municipal government, taking the next step in a plan that he proposed more than two years ago to gradually reduce the complexity of Bayonne municipal government.
“The proposed dissolution of the Parking Authority is part of my administration’s plan to make our local government leaner and more responsible.” – Mayor Mark Smith
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While action has yet to be taken in regards to the BLRA, the move to do away with the Parking Authority can be done more easily, partly because it is far less a complex operation and has far less debt for the city to absorb. The Parking Authority has, however, been plagued with a number of lawsuits and accusations of ticket fixing and other improprieties.
The new utility – which is also expected to be established by council vote on Dec. 14 – would give the mayor and his administration more oversight over the operations, and possibly do away with the potential for future problems.
Business Administrator Steve Gallo said the council’s move to abolish the BPA and to create a new Parking Utility under the auspices of the Department of Public Safety would streamline parking operations and make them directly accountable to the administration.
Smith introduced his plan for reducing the size of municipal government last year, which included reducing the city’s departments from the current nine departments to four, and creating subdivisions in each department to handle many of the chores departments currently handle.
But the elimination of the Parking Authority may well have been prompted by several lawsuits that involved former BPA executive directors, one that claimed several key city officials refused to crack down on ticket fixing when notified. Another suit – which was recently settled with former BPA Attorney Peter Cresci – has led to the city filing charges of Cresci’s allegedly exceeding his authority and billing the city for hours the city claims he could not have possibly put in. Cresci denied these allegations, saying that the Parking Authority trustees were informed of every action he took while he was in charge of the Parking Authority during a period that lasted a little over a year.
Specifics
One ordinance scheduled for a public hearing on Dec. 14 would abolish the BPA and outline what the agency can do during the transition. The second will set up a parking utility within the Public Safety Department.
The ordinance abolishing the BPA puts strict limitations of what business the BPA will be able to do during the transition, prohibiting the authority from borrowing money, selling property, or entering into any new agreement without the prior consent of the city. But the BPA would be able to conduct all other business, and pay its debt and other usual bills without council approval.
The ordinance would also transfer all Parking Authority real estate and other properties, contracts, and funds to the city. All records will also be given to the city.
This would include all parking meters, parking lots, Parking Authority vehicles for meter readers, and all other physical property currently owned by the BPA.
The city will assume the debts of the BPA, and a public hearing will be held regarding the debt.
If passed, the ordinance would be sent to the state Local Finance Board prior to final adoption for its review and approval.
The second ordinance states that Parking Utility would then inherit oversight of parking meters and parking lots, and would become the deciding agency for setting meter hours, meter rates, and other operations currently done by the BPA.
The Parking Utility would also deal with the care of parking properties and their upkeep, enforcement of city parking regulations, construction, alternations or maintenance of parking properties, and maintain a fund of collected fees that would cover the cost of these operations.
While the utility may purchase properties and equipment, this would be authorized by the City Council.
Under this ordinance, the mayor would have the full authority to appoint those necessary employees to the Parking Utility. Salaries, however, will be set by the City Council, and the salaries of existing employees of the Parking Utility may be pro-rated based on the amount of time spent on parking operations compared to the employees with full time jobs connected with other city operations.