The City of Oakland is proudly boasting about its new “parking-citation system” which officials say will be a “whole lot more efficient and cut down on frustration.” (As if there’s an enjoyable way to deal with parking tickets.) To hear Zak Walk, chief of staff for Council President Jane Brunner, describe it, you’d think this was done to better serve the constituents. I have my doubts, however, and believe the motivation behind the new system is purely based on collecting revenue.
The new system will be rolled out in several phases. So, what’s to be included in the first phase? If you guessed ‘pay-by phone’ and ‘pay-by-web’ systems, you’d be correct. Gee, I wonder why they chose to include more efficient payment-methods in the first phase. “It’s very exciting for those of us who want to see our constituents better served,” Walk said. And, apparently, even more exciting for those who want collect more parking-ticket revenue.
As defunct as the bureaucracy of Oakland’s government seems to be, they managed to streamline the process of developing and implementing the new system with enthusiasm and determination rarely seen in other matters. When it became clear they were short on manpower to handle the workload of the new project, they brought in interns from Cal Berkley to help out. Do they also bring in interns to assist with things like job-creation, public safety, traffic issues, and business development? My guess is no – because those issues don’t carry the same allure of immediate revenue. Later, when it became evident that they still needed more help with the new system, the Oakland City Council approved a 3-year contract with “ACS State and Local Solutions.” (Don’t let the name fool you – ACS is a private company.) According to a city press-release, the new contract with ACS will raise the collection-rate on parking citations from 68% to 80%. This means taxpayer money was spent to create a new system that’s goal is to collect more money from the taxpayer. Wow.
So what can Oaklanders expect to see in the next phase of the new system? If you guessed replacing handwritten tickets with computer-generated tickets, you’re correct again. Because if there’s one, universal, complaint about parking tickets in Oakland, it’s that the citations aren’t computer-generated! So, thank goodness for that.
The saddest part about this whole thing is that it comes as no surprise. With all the problems and complaints about parking-enforcement in Oakland, the City’s solution to better serve constituents is to implement new payment methods and improve collection rates? (Oh, and to replace handwritten tickets with computer generated ones.) Frustrating? Yes. Insulting? Definitely. Surprising? Not at all.
Agree with everything here. Always about the revenue.
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