What Happened?
Roanoke will be using a private contracting to distribute on-street parking tickets. The private organization has already been managing the city-owned parking garages and surface lots for six years, which will make the transition easy and cost-effective.
The Goal
Under the city’s contract with the private company, all parking fees and payment for parking spaces will be made to Park Roanoke, which will be managed by a single private company. The city will pay the private company a flat fee for on-street parking enforcement, eliminating any incentive for the provider to increase citations given.
For off-street parking management, the city will pay the private company $926,000, and an additional $230,000 for on-street enforcement. If a parking citation is left unpaid for a period of time and deemed delinquent, the private company will pass the information along to the city’s office of billing and collections.
Roanoke will not make or lose any money with the privatization contract. Public parking employees will be offered jobs working for the private company or be placed elsewhere in a government position. The main purpose of the privatization is to make it easier and more convenient for individuals to pay their parking costs, and keep all parking activities under the same management.
To enable the outsourcing contract to exist, Roanoke worked with state legislators to amend an existing law that only allowed outsourcing agreements for parking to cities with more than 100,000 residents.
Farmers Market Privatization
The Dallas Farmers Market is also embracing the use of private companies to enhance public services. The Dallas Farmers Market was recently sold for $3.2 million to a private company, as the downtown entity embarks on a $64.3 million overhaul project. To make the farmers market more valuable to residents and attractive to tourists, new amenities will be added to the area including:
- Restaurants
- Retail outlets
- Amphitheater
- Apartments
Over the last six years, the city of Dallas lost $.7 million while keeping the farmers market afloat. To make the destination more profitable, Dallas has created a public-private partnership to commence significant changes to the area. To fund the project, the city of Dallas will pay out a $670,000 public-private partnership grant and remain the landlord of the farmers market lot.
A Farmers Market Tax Increment Finance District will contribute $15 million to the overhaul project, and the private company is submitting $26.3 million in equity. The Farmers Market Tax Increment Finance District is adjacent to the farmers market as well as the downtown area and arts district. The purpose of the Farmers Market Tax Increment Finance District is to encourage private investment in the area around the farmers market. The finance district aims to provide a source of funding for public amenities and infrastructure improvements.
The city will maintain control over just one of four sheds in the area – where the farmers market is held. The other two sheds will be the sites of the new construction projects managed by the private company.
Privatization Moves Projects Forward
Gov1 has kept a close eye on a variety of privatization success stories ranging from parking initiatives to IT overhauls.