City of Culver City, California
Agenda Item Report
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council authorize (1) the Public Works
Department to solicit proposals for a new online residential Permit Parking
Program system; (2) the Police Department to solicit proposals to purchase a
digital chalking and license plate recognition system for automated parking
enforcement; and (3) the City Manager to add the associated costs and
personnel to the Proposed Fiscal Year 2015/2016 Budget.
BACKGROUND:
The topic of residential parking permits and restricted parking has two
interdependent components: (1) the administration of the Permit Parking
Program and (2) the enforcement of parking violations within parking restricted
residential districts. As such, and to present a holistic approach to addressing
present challenges and proposing solutions, this is a joint staff report presented
by the Public Works Department and the Police Department.
Meeting Date: 05/26/2015 Item Number: C-6
CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM: Authorization (1) for the Public Works
Department to Solicit Proposals for a new Online Residential Permit Parking
Program System; (2) for the Police Department to Solicit Proposals to Purchase
a Digital Chalking and License Plate Recognition System for Automated Parking
Enforcement; and (3) for the City Manager to Add the Associated Costs and
Personnel to the Proposed Fiscal Year 2015/2016 Budget.
Contact Person/Dept.: Gabe Garcia, PW
Sgt. William Jackson, CCPD
Phone Number: (310) 253-5633
(310) 253-6262
Fiscal Impact: Yes [] No [X] General Fund: Yes [X] No []
Public Hearing: [] Action Item: [] Attachments: []
Commission Action Required: Yes [] No [X] Date: ________________
Public Notification: (E-mail) Agenda and Meetings – City Council (05/21/15)
Department Approval:
Charles D. Herbertson (05/04/15)
Scott Bixby (05/21/15)
City Attorney Approval:
Carol Schwab (by H. Baker) (05/19/15)
Chief Financial Officer Approval:
Jeff Muir (05/21/15)
City Manager Approval:
John M. Nachbar (05/21/15) City of Culver City, California
Agenda Item Report
DISCUSSION:
The Permit Parking Program (PPP)
The most recent comprehensive revision of the PPP was adopted by the City
Council in November of 2013. With this revision, the PPP has grown significantly
to:
1. Meet the needs of the residents of Culver City by making available 14 new
parking permits, increasing the number of permitted vehicles per household
from two to four, providing annually 144 free visitor paper parking passes per
household, and making available permits for those who provide services to
families residing on PPP streets, such as baby sitters, nannies, house
keepers, medical care givers, and contractors.
2. Efficiently administer the PPP system by granting staff the authority to quickly
add new residential blocks to the program based on petition, without
conducting engineering parking studies or consideration by the Traffic
Committee or the City Council, as long as the proposed restrictions are those
pre-approved by the City Council in the City Council Policy.
The PPP currently has approximately 2,000 homes enrolled in the program, with
approximately 3,300 vehicles registered and issued permits, in over 130
residential blocks. Currently there are an additional 18 blocks that have made
contact with staff and expressed interest in obtaining restricted parking to
address excessive non-residential parking intrusion. Some of these blocks have
received information and petition forms, while others have already submitted
qualifying petitions and are in the process of meeting the requirement that 66% of
the homes on the block purchase parking permits before the parking restriction
signs are installed. These 18 blocks represent approximately 430 additional
homes and an estimated 730 additional vehicles that may be enrolled in the PPP.
The Public Works Department, Engineering Division, is responsible for managing
the PPP. Since the adoption of the comprehensive revision to the PPP in
November of 2013, staff has been challenged on meeting the high demand of the
new PPP, at the cost of delaying and postponing other tasks and projects by all
Engineering Division staff involved in the PPP.
The existing size of the program, the potential future growth, and the impact to
staff’s workload have caused staff to consider a new online residential Permit City of Culver City, California
Agenda Item Report
Parking Program system in which most of the processes currently being done
manually would become automated.
The proposed system would fulfill three functions:
1. Accept applications online from qualifying residents, as well as all required
supporting documentation, after the creation of an address-based password-
protected account, and to determine and track what permits are available to
qualifying households and charge the applicable fees. The system would
generate daily approval lists so that the permits purchased are mailed to the
residents.
2. Manage all processes contained in the adopted PPP such as A) to track new
petitions based on three different qualifying processes: 1) City Council pre-
approved parking restriction for daytime or nighttime; 2) Land development
potential and perceived parking intrusion impacts; and 3) Traffic Engineering
parking studies; B) to conduct audits to ascertain and pursue minimum
participation requirements on a block-by-block basis; C) to automatically track
and advise staff when blocks in the process of instituting parking restrictions
have met the 66% permit purchase requirement; D) to run reports on all data
in the system; E) to make data readily available to answer queries from the
public; and F) other related processes.
3. Feed appropriate data, when changes occur in the PPP database, on a real-
time basis to the Police Department’s future digital chalking and license plate
recognition system (Automated Parking Enforcement System). This topic is
discussed later in this report. The Police Department seeks the City Council’s
authorization to release an RFP soliciting proposals to acquire this Automated
Parking Enforcement System.
Additionally, a kiosk with two computers and a document scanner would be
connected to the online system and be installed near the Public Works
Department Engineering Division’s public counter to be used as a self-service
location for residents who may not have computers. Staff would assist in the use
of the kiosk when needed. Further, the RFP requires that a telephone number
and staffing be provided by the successful firm to answer the public’s inquiries
and assist with applications and resolution of concerns.
This migration of the PPP and the establishing of an Automated Parking
Enforcement System has been discussed by the City Council’s Ad Hoc
Committee on Parking and Traffic. The Subcommittee’s long term goal is to
make the PPP into a paperless program. Additionally, this topic has been
discussed and supported by the Parking Technology Working Group comprised City of Culver City, California
Agenda Item Report
of staff representing the City Manager’s Office, the Police Department, the Public
Works Department, Community Development Department, and Information
Technology Department.
The RFP will require that the successful firm maintain and further develop the
System to meet new needs and provide staff support to efficiently and promptly
process PPP applications and fulfill parking permit purchases.
Should the City Council approve the proposed actions, the RFP would be sent to
firms that are known to provide online permit parking management systems, as
well as posted on the City website.
The Automated Parking Enforcement System
The Police Department issues an average of approximately 34,450 citations for
all violations, based on data from the last seven years. Of these, an average of
approximately 650 monthly citations are issued for violations in permit parking-
restricted streets (approximately 7,800 per year). Such citations comprise 23%
of all citations issued. In spite of the current enforcement experience, requests
for additional enforcement are received from residents of parking-restricted
streets. Given current staffing levels, manual chalking of vehicles, and the
required second visit in order to witness a parking violation, citation numbers are
not likely to increase. Limitations on enforcement diminish the objectives of the
PPP.
In order to increase the effectiveness of parking enforcement efforts, automated
parking enforcement technology is a promising tool. The experience of other
municipalities using such technology indicates that the capture rate (number of
violations captured and issued citations) increases, which in turn leads to parking
behavior changes and greater satisfaction by residents.
The demand for parking enforcement has increased as a result of the ongoing
growth of the PPP, a growing number of parking meters, and an underway
citywide reduction of the street sweeping window from four hours to two hours.
With competing parking enforcement priorities, and in order to best serve the
parking enforcement needs of Culver City residents in the permit-parking
restricted streets, with City Council concurrence the Police Department is
proposing to institute the use of automated parking enforcement technology in
Fiscal Year 2015/2016. Also the Police Department proposes to hire two
additional Parking Enforcement Officers (PEOs), who, if approved by the City
Council, will be dedicated to automated parking enforcement in residential permit
parking-restricted streets.
City of Culver City, California
Agenda Item Report
If the City Council approves of the concepts provided in this report, the City
Manager’s Proposed Fiscal Year 2015/2016 Budget will be adjusted to add two
PEO positions and two parking enforcement pick-up trucks, radios, and hand-
held citation-issuing units. These two trucks would be equipped with the
Automated Parking Enforcement Technology, if the City Council authorizes the
solicitation of proposals and subsequently awards a contract.
The Automated Parking Enforcement Technology is the integration of various
technologies:
Digital chalking technology that captures with high-precision GPS the exact
location of parked vehicles and documents such location with data and digital
photography. Then, during a subsequent trip and a second sighting of the
same vehicle, compares the vehicle’s position, geographic data, and parking
restriction data to determine if a there is a parking violation;
License plate recognition (LPR) technology that captures the parked
vehicle’s license plate and checks database tables to determine if the vehicle
has or does not have a valid parking permit or is on a list of stolen or scofflaw
vehicles;
Real-time wireless communication and connections to servers that provide
data pushed from the PPP’s database and integrates with the Police
Department’s ticketPRO enforcement application to perform push-notification
to issue citations and in turn connects to the City’s contracted citations fine
collector’s web services to feed LPR data; and,
Vehicle equipped with GPS and digital camera equipment, in which occurs
the integration of all of the above technologies through complex software.
Such software has the ability to perform the above functions and alert the
PEO while traveling at 25 miles per hour.
As indicated previously, the Automated Parking Enforcement System has been
discussed and the pursuit of its implementation recommended by the City
Council’s Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Parking and Traffic and has also been
discussed and supported by the Parking Technology Working Group.
The RFP will require that the successful firm install, test, train, maintain, and
support the automated parking enforcement system.
If approved by the City Council, the RFP will be sent to firms that are known to
provide these systems, as well as posted on the City’s web site.
City of Culver City, California
Agenda Item Report
FISCAL ANALYSIS:
The authorization to solicit proposals does not create a fiscal impact for the City.
However, the ultimate award of a contract to successful bidders will create a
fiscal impact. Also, the additional PEO positions and equipment required is a
fiscal impact as well.
If the City Council approves of the requests in this report, it is recommended the
City Manager be directed to include the following positions and appropriations in
the City Manager’s Proposed Fiscal Year 2015/2016 Budget:
Public Works
New Online Permit Parking Program system is estimated to cost $75,000.
Police Department
Purchase of an automated parking enforcement system to equip two PEO
trucks, at $120,000;
Purchase of two PEO trucks, two radios, and two hand-held citation-issuing
units, at $55,500; and
Creation of two new PEO positions who would be dedicated to automated
parking enforcement in residential permit parking-restricted streets,
approximately $160,500.
The total cost for the Police Department’s proposed solution during the first
year, if all components are approved, is $336,000. And a subsequent annual
ongoing cost of $186,420, including staffing and equipment operating and
maintenance costs.
It is anticipated that the number of citations issued in residential parking-
restricted streets for violations of the posted permit parking restrictions would
double the first year. Based on this, the estimated first year revenue is
anticipated to be $783,360, which represents an increase of $386,172 over the
existing revenue. After the first year, it is projected that after paying for all
ongoing costs of $186,420, the net revenue would be approximately
$199,752.The proposed solution would therefore be self-funding. Staff will
monitor the results and report back to the City Manager after the programs have
been in place for one year.
City of Culver City, California
Agenda Item Report
MOTIONS:
That the City Council:
1. Authorize the Public Works Department to solicit proposals for a new online
residential Permit Parking Program system; and,
2. Authorize the Police Department to solicit proposals to purchase a digital
chalking and license plate recognition system for automated parking
enforcement.
3. Authorize the City Manager to add two new PEO positions, associated
equipment and software costs to the City Manager’s Proposed Fiscal Year
2015/2016 Budget in the total amount of $411,000, and increase estimated
on-going Parking Citation revenues by $386,172.