City Council will be asked to raise Bethlehem’s parking fines to $20, rather than $25 as originally proposed, and to give violators five days to pay a discounted fine of only $15.
Those suggestions for council unanimously were made by its three-member public safety committee, after it discussed the issue for nearly an hour Tuesday night.
Perhaps significantly, the committee did not vote to make a recommendation in favor or against the proposed increase in fines — only to move it on to full council with its suggestions.
While not part of their suggestion to council, some committee members also favor escalating fines for repeat offenders of the city’s parking laws.
They also discussed giving people a “grace period” of up to 10 minutes after the time on their parking meters expires.
Council president William Reynolds was not sure when the parking fines proposal will go before full council for discussion and a vote.
Mayor Robert Donchez was not at the committee meeting but later confirmed he still feels $20 should be the maximum increase.
The current fine for being parked at an expired meter, and for other parking violations, is only $10.
The increase to $25 for the most prevalent parking violations was recommended to City Council by Kevin Livingston, executive director of Bethlehem Parking Authority.
But during the committee meeting, Livingston acknowledged: “I think the consensus is $20. I could agree with $20.”
The parking authority director said 33,000 tickets were issued in 2013 for violations at 1,300 meters in the city, which makes it clear “that people are not following the ordinance. That’s why I’m here today.”
He believes the higher fine will encourage more people to obey city parking rules.
But resident Dana Grubb told the committee someone who gets one parking ticket should not be “hammered” with a $25 fine.
If out-of-town visitors go to Bethlehem and get a $25 parking ticket, “they’re never going to come back,” warned Grubb. “It’s going to have a negative impact on business owners.”
“You want it to sting a little,” said council member Eric Evans, chairman of the committee. “But you don’t want to hit them so hard that you chase them away.”
“If we raise this too high, they’re going to say; ‘Well screw this, I’m never going to downtown Bethlehem again’,” said council member Michael Recchuiti, who serves on the committee.
Recchiuti predicted making people pay a $25 fine because they were 10 minutes late getting to their parking meter “is going to turn away business. And that’s what I don’t want to do.”
“There’s a difference between the willful violator — the person who is purposefully violating our ordinance — and the person who get caught in line at a store and misses their meter by a few minutes,” said Recchiuti.
“It seems like the goal of this is to go after the habitual violators,” said council member Adam Waldron, who also serves on the pubic safety committee.
“I would be hesitant to go after everyone, including people who want to spend their money and time downtown.”
Calling a $25 fine “pretty stiff,” Recchuiti initially suggested making it only $15. Waldron suggested $20.
Both Waldron and Recchiuti recommended the discount for people who promptly pay the fine.
Why $25 fine proposed
In addition to increasing compliance with city parking laws, Livingston of the parking authority maintained the $25 fine would increase turnover of parking spaces with meters, which would benefit city merchants, and increase available parking for holders of residential parking permits.
Livingston argued that the $25 fine would reduce the number of repeat offenders, rather than having to issue them ticket after ticket.
He said the goal is send them a message that they must obey the parking laws “the first time and don’t have them offend again” rather than “repeatedly having to penalize them to get the message across.”
Livingston initially proposed to the committee the fine be increased to $25 for the top five parking violations and that all other $10 fines would increase to $15.
The committee did not offer an opinion on the proposed increase in those lesser fines.
In addition to parking meter violations, which is number one, those top violations include parking in designated no parking zones, parking on private property, parking too long in zones with time limits, and parking vehicles that are inoperable or don’t have current registration or inspection stickers.
The request for an increase in city parking fines unanimously had been approved by the parking authority board.
Livingston said the fines were increased from $5 to $10 five years ago.
Resident Bruce Haines, who is managing partner at Hotel Bethlehem, said the request for increased parking fines was initiated by the Downtown Bethlehem Association because of parking problems faced by businesses on Main Street in the city’s historic district.
Repeat offenders
When the issue of increasing parking fines was raised several months ago, the primary emphasis was on repeat offenders — people living or working in center-city Bethlehem who ignore parking meter fees and run the risk of getting a $10 ticket rather than paying to park in a city garage
Haines told the council committee that continues to be the concern.
“It just doesn’t make sense to say all fines should be $20 or $25 because of a few people who are abusing the privilege,” resident Peter Crownfield told the committee.
Rather than increasing fines, Crownfield said the solution should be to increase enforcement.
“Let those all-day parkers get two or three tickets in one day,” said Crownfield. “Then they’ll pay $30 and you’ll get your deterrent effect.”
Crownfield said Bethlehem merchants have expressed concerns that “excessive fines would unduly penalize people who merely overstay by 10 or 15 minutes because they were busy shopping in their stores or getting a cup of coffee.”
Escalating fines
By raising the $10 fine, argued Recchiuti, “you’re not hitting the targeted people. If it’s truly a plan to go after the people who are abusing the system, you have to penalize the second, third, fourth and subsequent offenses.”
Instead of increasing the $10 fine, Grubb suggested doubling the fine to $20 for the next violation, and doubling that to $40 for a third violation.
“I guarantee you, not only will people learn the lesson, [but] you’ll hit them where it really hurts, you’ll drive them into the parking garages and you’ll get the turnover,” said Grubb.
Both Recchiuti and Waldron expressed interest in some kind of tiered system of increasing fines for repeat offenders.
“It’s probably a solution we should explore,” said Recchiuti.
If a vehicle remains at an expired meter for more than three hours, Livingston said the parking authority can issue a second $10 ticket.
When Evans asked about escalating fines, Livingston said parking authority personnel currently do not have the ability to find out if the same vehicle previously has been ticketed in the last several months.
“I know the technology is out there, that it is possible, but it’s not something the authority currently has,” said Livingston.
A grace period built into meters
Livingston said a three-minute grace period is built into Bethlehem’s parking meters, meaning people are not fined if they are less three minutes late after their meter expires.
He said some businesses suggest making it a 10-minute grace period, but he thinks 10 minutes is too long.
Livingston indicated he would be receptive to a seven or eight-minute grace period on meters. “That will allow you to be running a little late and not get a ticket.”
But Recchiuti later said ten minutes might be appropriate.
After three minutes, Livingston said the parking authority’s enforcement personnel cannot tell how long a meter has been expired.
Other council members
Three members of council who are not on the public safety committee but attended its meeting also weighed in on the issue.
“I think I can speak for the senior citizens and say that $25 is way too high,” said council member Louis Stellato.
“That will scare people away; it will scare them [seniors] away especially. They won’t come back.
“I’m even thinking maybe even $20 is too high. Maybe $15 is more palatable.”
Getting a ticket is a choice, responded Livingston. “If you come to Bethlehem and you don’t pay the meters or you don’t pay attention to the signs, you’re going to get a fine.”
Council member Bryan Callahan noted parking ticket revenue in Bethlehem dropped $204,000 in 2014 —a 20 percent decrease compared to 2013.
Livingston said that decrease was due to understaffing.
“In 2013, we had seven enforcement officers. In 2014, we had five. We had multiple occurrences of on-the-job injuries that put us down to three at times.”
He added the staff now is back up to seven, “which is the adequate amount I believe is needed.”
Livingston became the parking authority’s director last year.
Said Reynolds: “You probably realized early on that the people in charge of parking in the city of Bethlehem are never very popular people.”
“Whatever is decided,” predicted Reynolds, “it’s never going to be something that everybody agrees on.
“One thing we all can agree on is that people’s theories on what we should do with parking downtown differ. And sometimes they differ from business to business.”
Livingston said the proposed increase in fines will not increase revenue to the parking authority because more people will comply with the law to avoid being fined.
Grubb disagreed, saying: “It’s always about the revenue.”
Livingston said he has met with businesses both north and south of the Lehigh River abut the increasing fines, since south Bethlehem also has a business district and parking meters.
He said businesses on the north side of the river are in agreement —“they think there should be a $20 fine.”
He said most business people he heard from on the south side of town were opposed to increasing the fines, later adding he had a difficult time getting feedback from most south Bethlehem business owners.
The south Bethlehem business district does not have a parking garage, but Livingston said it does have more 10-hour and 13-hour meters for long-term parking.
Main Street businesses support an increase
Callahan said he lives along Main Street and talks to many business owners on that street.
“If you ask them all what their preference is, it’s to have a lot of turnover on the parking spaces. They all think that’s a critical element to the success of their businesses.”
Haines of Hotel Bethlehem said he also would support $20 fines rather than $25 fines. “I support it and I think most of the businesses on Main Street support it.”
Haines said if there would be a way to have free parking on parts of Main Street, “that would be even better. But short of that, we support the concept of increasing the parking fines for somebody that extends beyond a three-hour limit.”
Haines said businesses would prefer to have no parking fees on Main Street for up to three hours “and then fine them big time if they go beyond three hours.”
He said that would encourage more people to shop in center-city.
Haines said the businesses on Main Street are very fragile.
“Everybody thinks it’s great because they saw all the people there during Christmas. But one or two months a year and a couple of festivals and things like that don’t carry the day 12 months out of the year for most of the shops on Main Street.”
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