City of Birmingham



City of Birmingham

ADVISORY PARKING COMMITTEE

REGULAR MEETING

Birmingham City Hall Commission Room

151 Martin, Birmingham, Michigan

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

MINUTES

These are the minutes for the Advisory Parking Committee regular meeting held on Wednesday, September 17, 2014. The meeting was called to order by Chairman Lex Kuhne at 7:35 a.m.

Present: Chairman Lex Kuhne

Julie Gheen

Anne Honhart

Judith Paskewicz (arrived at 7:37 a.m.)

Vice-Chairperson Susan Peabody

Al Vaitas

Absent: James Esshaki, Steven Kalczynski

Central Parking: Catherine Burch

Jason O’Dell

Mark Garcia, Remote Management Team, Austin, TX

Robert Johnson, Remote Management Team, Austin, TX

Administration: Paul O’Meara, City Engineer

Brendan Cousino, Asst. City Engineer

Carole Salutes, Recording Secretary

RECOGNITION OF GUESTS (none)

APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING OF JULY 16, 2014

Motion by Ms. Peabody

Seconded by Ms. Honhart to approve the APC Minutes from the regular meeting of August 20, 2014 as presented.

Motion carried, 5-0.

VOICE VOTE:

Yeas: Peabody, Honhart, Gheen, Kuhne, Vaitas

Nays: None

Absent: Esshaki, Kalczynski, Paskewicz

CENTRAL PARKING REMOTE MANAGEMENT

Ms. Burch talked about the remote management service they offer and introduced their remote management team from Austin, Texas. She reported the last two parking structures were completely automated for payment collection in 2013. There are no longer any cashiers in the system. The automated payment machines and central computer control system enable the operation of the entire parking system from the Central Parking office located in the Chester St. Parking Structure. Questions from customers in the five different garages are fielded on a 24-hour basis, six days a week. If they used the remote management, all of those questions would go to Austin.

The automated operations would reduce payroll costs by a little over $100,000 per year. Customer service would also improve because of the addition of cameras and an upgraded intercom system that allows for simultaneous two-way communication with the remote customer service representatives. Central Parking feels Birmingham is a good fit for a remote management solution. The system incorporates remote management of the parking access and revenue control equipment along with the daily reporting of revenue through the command center in Austin, Texas.

The capital outlay is focused on the addition of cameras and a two-way intercom. With the payroll savings, a return on that investment will be seen in a little over a year and a half.

Mr. Garcia showed a live video stream of the command center in Austin and spoke a little about how the company got started. Right now they are pumping about 170 locations into Austin which equates to about 3,200 intercom calls/day. Ninety percent of their calls are answered in under 25 seconds and resolved very quickly so the traffic flow can move on.

Mr. O'Dell said one of the biggest problems they have now is that new parkers coming in don't know what they are doing or are in too big of a rush to read the instructions on the machines. Also, the existing one-way intercom hinders communication and staff cannot see what customers are doing. On rare occasions staff gets calls In the middle of the night that require someone to be deployed, such as for a credit card jam. There is always a maintenance person working in one of the garages who would be contacted and serve the purpose of a roamer.

Mr. O'Dell described placement of the cameras. One would be focused on the exit machine and the other would be in front of the cars looking back to see what kind of a lineup might be happening. Mr. Garcia added that video feed associates the camera with the intercom push-button so when a call is answered the video feed pops up on the screen. Therefore, the agent in the command center not only speaks with the customer, he/she can see what the customer is doing with their hands. Also, when there is a traffic backup, the agent can initiate a call to speak with a customer and figure out what is going on. The command center has 180 screens. There is one camera on each pay device. Mr. O'Dell estimated the Chester Structure office averages one hundred calls per day. One person handles all the calls. With the automation, three jobs would be eliminated. Ms. Burch said their experience has been either their employees willingly take a layoff, or they are redeployed to another area.

Responding to whether the command center might move off-shore, Mr. Garcia indicated they will be in Austin for a very long time and plans are in the works to expand their operation there. Further, they are exploring the possibility of opening a second structure and it will be in the U.S.

Ms. Burch said she doesn't know of any local municipality that is using a Remote Management solution. Mr. Garcia noted Central Parking Remote Management currently operates five garages for the City of Portland, Oregon and they receive the same types of calls from the same types of customers. Mr. O'Dell noted they would also get a command unit in their Chester office that will act as a back-up if for some reason communication with Austin is lost. Ms. Burch added if the City feels this isn't a good fit, they can always move back to local monitoring. She didn't anticipate that remote monitoring fees would increase in the near future. Mr. Garcia noted they have had stable rates since day one.

Mr. O'Meara thought it best if this big expenditure was put in the budget request for next year. Committee members were interested in seeing the contract before approving a recommendation. They also expressed the desire to have discussions with other cities who have used Remote Management.

Continuing discussion indicated that it would be the City's responsibility to pay for repairs if something went wrong with the system. Mr. O'Dell confirmed the equipment is very high end and cleaning is part of their normal maintenance.

Mr. O'Dell said even if they decide not to go with remote management, they will still recommend upgrading the intercoms and getting the cameras.

Discussion continued that by reducing staff, Central Parking would reduce only staff working in the office. There will not be a reduction to the staff currently in the garages; that is, a maintenance person in every garage every day, and roamers out in the garages every day.

In conclusion, the chairman noted there are still people in town who miss the cashiers in the booths. The City enjoys their relationship with Central Parking and they do a good job. However, there is a perception of jobs being lost as well as the customer service relationship, even if it is not true. It is about the culture and about how people feel when they come into Birmingham. Regardless, an equipment upgrade is something to be looked at.

AD HOC PARKING STUDY COMMITTEE UPDATE

Ms. Peabody reported the study committee will have to take a step back with regard to adding two floors onto Pierce until more accurate figures come in after the Park St. Structure gets totally re-opened and permits are re-sold. The committee is trying to assess what the real parking problem is. Mr. O'Meara announced all of the Park St. structure spaces will open back up today. Now they have 129 permits that can be sold in that garage and people that purchase them may be vacating a permit in one of the other garages. Once that occurs, staff can do another round of counts for two weeks. A further problem that will occur in late October is that the Kroger lot is closed for renovations. Until they get a reliable generation model, they don't feel the Commission wants to see a partial package of recommendations. They will want to know the entire picture for the next several years before discussing a potential vote on a bond issue.

CONSTRUCTION UPDATE

The work on the sidewalk at Park St. Structure is still going on. It is hoped the work on the Ferndale St. side will be finished within the next few weeks.

Next year they will focus on the Peabody and Chester St. Structures.

CENTRAL PARKING FINANCIAL REPORTS MONTHLY PARKING REPORT

AND GRAPHS

Ms. Burch reported there are 1,500 individuals on the waiting list for permits. Discussion followed about how much the retail and restaurant environments are suffering because of the parking shortage.

MEETING OPEN FOR MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA

Mr. O'Meara noted that MDOT is looking at a ten year time frame between now and when they would have the funds to do a complete re-build of Woodward Ave. from Eight Mile Rd. to Sixteen Mile Rd. That would be a $170 million project.

There has been ongoing dialogue between the hotel and the City about building a hotel that includes public parking. The hotel wants the City to help finance the parking garage they would like to build.

It was discussed that there is an elevator problem at Peabody. The elevator has been down for a week, on and off, because something additional goes wrong. At Park, there isn't obvious signage about where to exit. That information should be displayed on every floor. The chairman asked Mr. O'Dell to look into it and report back.

NEXT REGULARLY SCHEDULED MEETING

October 15, 2014

ADJOURNMENT

No further business being evident, the chairman adjourned the meeting at 9 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

[pic]

Paul O’Meara

City Engineer

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