LTC 146-2011 Garages Pay on Foot MIAM BE
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
NO. LTC # 1146 -2011 1 LE R TO. C. 6S I O N
,
TO: Mayor Matti Herrera Bower and
Members of the City Commission
FROM: Jorge M. Gonzalez, City Manager
DATE: June 10 2011
SUBJECT: GARAGES /PAY ON FOOT (POF) TRANSITION - UPDATE
The following serves as an update regarding the operation of municipal garages within the
City's Parking System. The Off - Street Division of the Parking Department manages and
operates all attended parking facilities, including municipal garages, through a partial
privitization approach. In other words, all labor services are unit price contracted services,
either in hourly rate units or service units. For example, parking attendants and security
guard services are provided by Impark and Security Alliance, respectively, at a biilable hourly
rate. Other services such as jantiorial and landscaping are facility based. This approach
has been successful as the City uses private sector expertise and their related cost savings,
however, the City retains direct control of all management, operations, and policies.
One key goal has been to reduce operational expenses while maintaining or even increasing
levels of service. The Parking Department has and will continue to reduce expenses
through technology enhancements, such as Pay -On -Foot (POF) stations at its garages. This
has resulted in the reduction of labor hours for the parking attendants services. Labor hours
for security services has also been significantly reduced by trasitioning to more efficient and
effective patrolling strategies. However, it is important to note that expenses have crept up
slightly in the current year. These increases are primarily attributed to the effects of the
Living Wage Ordinance amendment and will likely result in increased expenses in the next
two fiscal years.
Parking Attendant Hours Comparison by Fiscal Year (FY):
Year: FY 06/07 FY 07/08 FY 08/09 FY 09/10 FY 10/11 vs FY09 /10 vs FY08 /09
Hours: 207,572 222,945 229,854 172 150 (15 %) (53 %)
Cost: $3,320,111 $3,698,538 $3,274,416 $2,492,121 $2,411,000 ** (3 %) ** (36 %)
* Projected for FY 10/11
** Increase in Living Wage Rate offset savings
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PARKING GARAGE OPERATIONS
Pay -On -Foot (POF) Stations
The following municipal parking garages are fully operational with POF stations:
Garage No. 2 - 12 Street and Drexel Avenue Garage
Garage No. 3 - 13 Street and Collins Avenue Garage
Garage No. 7 - 5 th and Alton Garage
Garage No. 8 - City Hall Garage
Garage No. 9 - Pennsylvania Avenue Garage
Despite the advent of POF stations at these garages, it is necessary to maintain minimum
staffing levels at these facilites. Minimum staffing consists of one (1) parking attendant to
process disabled parking and /or other validations. The Miami -Dade County Code requires
public sector parking facilities to provide disabled parking at no charge. Clearly, technology
greatly reduces the need to have a human presence; however, as in any service oriented
facility ft is necessary to maintain a human element in the form of one parking attendant to
address a myriad of questions and /or operational issues that may arise. These issues
include, but are not limited to, lost/damaged garage tickets; equipment failure such as
elevators, ticket dispensers, exit verifiers; vehicle breakdowns /accidents; and patron with
questions ranging from directions to assistance to locate their "lost "vehicle within the
garage. Please note that additional staffing may be required contingent upon increased
demand and /or special events in the surrouding area.. Please note that transition to POF
Station operation at Garage No. 6 — 42nd Street Garage is not recommended due to low
transient utilization. The following municipal garages are scheduled to transition fully to POF
Station operation:
Garage No. 1 - 7 th Street and Collins Avenue Garage
Garage No. 4 - Anchor Garage /16 Street Garage
Garage No. 5 - 17 Street and Convention Center Drive Garage
Capital Improvements:
The transition from a "pay at exit" to a "pay on foot" operation requires a number of capital
improvements which in some cases may require retrofits contingent upon Limitations within
the garage. Most significantliy, a centralized cashier station must be constructed as part of
the garage office; installation of POF equipment at strategic pedestrian pathways and exit
lanes; pedestrian pathway safety; ADA accessibility; signage; and removal of existing booth
at the exit lanes. The City's CIP Department has selected an Architectural /Enginnering
(A/E) firm. CIP and the A/E have received a revised preliminary cost proposal from the
contractor for the required improvements and are currently negotiating the A/E fees.
Auditing (Treddles) Features:
All municipal parking garages currently have a state -of- the -art gated revenue control system
in place. This "gated" revenue control system acts as an electronic "treddle" as it tracks and
accounts all vehicle entries and exits of each individual garage. Therefore, all entries /exits
including transient, access cards, validations, pay -on -foot; pay at exit; and employee
identification cards are tracked and monitored. Numerous audits are conducted
systematically and on an impromptu basis. These audits are performed by the contractor;
parking department personnel; and the City's Internal Auditor. The final and ultimate
safeguard is built into the contractor's requirement to reimburse the City for any and all lost
revenue, including cash and /or tickets, within 72 hours of notification of the City.
Security Services:
Deployment of security services has also been amended from stationary patrols at each
garage individually to roving patrols for all garages collectively. This has resulted in
significant savings in labor hours while providing the same level of service.
Security Services Hours Comparison by Fiscal Year'(FY):
Year: FY06 /07 FY07 /08 FY08 /09 FY09 /10 FYI 0/11 vs 09/10 vs 08/09
Hours: 58,710 59,398 54 34,076 21,288* (60 %) (154 %)
Cost: $849,238 $1,086,013 $978 $620,757 $383 (62 %) (255 %)
* Projected for FY 10/11
60,000
50,000 . .
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Fry 06/o7 FY 07/08 Fy o /0 � FY 09/10 FY 10/11
SecuritV Services Flours Comparison, by f=is Year (FY)-
In conclusion, CIP and the A/E will expedite their review of the contractor's proposed project
cost in order to complete this project. Clearly, the transition of the remaining parking garages
from exit cashiering to POF operations will yield additional savings in labor hours (operating
expenses). The Parking Department will continue to closely monitor the usage of all
contracted services, including attendants and security, for efficiencies with little or no
adverse impacts to service levels.
JMG /JGG /SF
F Api n g\$ALL\SAU L\C M O\G a rag ePayOnFootStationTransition .Itc.doc
C: Jorge Gomez, Assistant City Manager
Hilda Fernandez, Assistant City Manager
Saud Frances, Parking Director