JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Two City Council members started demanding answers Thursday, following a News4Jax investigation into broken parking meters downtown.
City Council Vice President Lori Boyer said she had no idea the meters were even a problem until News4Jax contacted her.
“Until this week we were not aware,” Boyer said. “I, as a council member, was not aware this was an ongoing problem.”
Councilman Matt Schellenberg was also in the dark. He summoned Paul Crawford with the city's Economic Development Office for an explanation during a committee meeting Wednesday afternoon after hearing about the News4Jax investigation.
“For years these meters have never given us any problems up until the last quarter of 2015 they started to go out and they started to go out in mass,” Crawford said.
Crawford wouldn't speak on camera, but he explained to the Council the batteries in the digital meters all started failing at once. And even though the city bought 300 new ones, many are still not working.
The manufacturer hasn't been able to figure out why.
Schellenberg asked why the Council hadn't been told.
“I apologize we should have reached out to you earlier,” Crawford said.
As News4Jax was preparing to interview Boyer, parking meter maintenance crews showed up and began replacing the broken meters on Adams Street, which were featured in Wednesday night’s newscast.
Some of the meters have been temporarily replaced with older, functional ones until the new meters arrive.
Boyer said she would check them in 60 days to make sure the new ones are working and the batteries aren’t bad. If they are bad, Boyer said the Council will have to make some tough decisions if they have to replace all of them. This would be expensive as each meter costs about $645.
City employees received letters Friday reminding them not to park in metered spaces. They were told to park in long-term lots or garages. The city warned employees that enforcement officers are stepping up patrols and will be issuing tickets if they park in metered spaces.
DOCUMENT: Memo to city workers about parking at meters
Downtown business owners speak out on broken parking meters
Downtown businesses have complained about the issue of broken parking meters for some time now.
Three store owners have said city employees who work in the city's Ed Ball Building on Adams and Hogan streets are tying up parking spaces for hours in front of broken meters.
A broken meter essentially allows a driver to park all day for free. Parking enforcement officers are not ticketing these drivers since they have no way of knowing if they paid or how long they have stayed in the spot.
"’Terrible,’ that's what I hear all day long from customers that come and try to park,"’ explained Greg Vaccaro, owner of Gus' Shoe Repair.
Vaccaro is not alone. "My customers will go to another store where they live and not do business downtown and it's all the parking," said Vikki Wilkins, owner of the UPS store on Hogan Street, which is across from one of the entrances to the Ed Ball Building.
Joyce Hamilton, owner of Knott and Jewelers Co., also on Hogan Street said, "A lot of the customers, I have to go pick up their things because they don't want to come downtown. Older people, they can't walk four or five blocks to pick up their repairs."
Hamilton, Wilkins and Vaccaro said the meters in front of their stores have been broken for months and accuse city workers of parking in them for hours, even the meters that limit drivers to 30 minute parking.
"It's mainly city workers who abuse the parking here and take up meters with their city vehicles and their employees," complained Vaccaro.
Eleven of the 15 meters in front of Vaccaro’s store are not working, the most were found on one street of the 15 blocks. Four of the six in front of Wilkins and Hamilton's stores were also broken.
Adams Street in front of Vaccaro's shop to get a better look at the problem. News4Jax found workers not only tying up spots on the street, but they also moved their cars from metered parking to places where the meter was broken, so they could park for free all day.
These drivers were asked if they had reported the broken meters to the city, after all, they work in the city's government office building. But none of them would answer questions. They also would not answer questions about whether they knew parking all day at a broken meter was hurting these local businesses.
It should be pointed out that parking at a broken meter is not illegal.
News4Jax parking meter survey:
Block-by-block list of working/non-working meters
There is a city garage attached to the Ed Ball building where workers can park. A parking attendant told said the garage is full and there is a long waiting list. But the manager of a garage right across the street, said opposite, that there are available spaces.
There is also another garage two blocks from the Ed Ball building across from the Duval County Courthouse. It has several available spaces as well.
After the story aired Tuesday night revealing more than 100 broken parking meters in the city's downtown core, nearly all of the parking spots in front of the Ed Ball building were fixed on Wednesday. Only four of the 15 are still broken.
News4Jax would like to hear from you. Do you work or live downtown and find there is not enough parking enforcement? Cars that sit all day and are never ticketed? Do you have a problem with handicap parking? Email jwaugh@wjxt.com or Facebook WJXT4 Jennifer Waugh.