December 7, 2012

Honorable Mayor Mark Mallory Members of Council: Re: 2013 City Budget

Ladies & gentlemen, The recently proposed FY 2013 budget contains a number of items that raise some level of concern; however the item that has raised the most eyebrows is the proposed privatization of the parking services. In the simplest and most direct terms possible, this proposal is bad for the community, and bad for the city. As a community, both Clifton Town Meeting and the Clifton Business and Professional Association are strongly opposed to this proposal for the following reasons: Its bad for business. Parking challenges will ratchet up the pressure on all urban or near urban business districts such as Cliftons Ludlow Avenue corridor, making it more difficult to maintain and grow their customer base. Businesses want and need to find a home in an area that welcomes them, fosters and nurtures their growth, and offers them incentives and opportunities to expand. Customers desire convenient, free or inexpensive parking without fear of over-zealous, profit motivated enforcement; it is a significant factor in deciding where to shop and the lack and will motivate consumers to patronize the suburban malls where parking is cheap or free. Privatization of enforcement is a bad idea. The paradigm shift to profit and revenue enhancement over public safety has become nationally, and would again become locally, a significant question over due-process and accountability. The referendum of 2008 outlawing red light and speed cameras within the city limits should offer a sense of the residents position on these matters. Parking services such as street meters serve the common good, directly by providing parking and forced rotation of parking spaces, and indirectly by generating revenue that is returned to the city for re-distribution. Once they are outsourced and privatized, they become unidirectional ATMs benefitting a third party that provides minimal or no value to the citizens; rather the citizens become a commodity to the for-profit operators shareholders. Parking services cease to become a facilitator to growth and development of a city and become a business itself open to the highest bidder to the detriment of all save the forprofit, third party operator. The lessons of other citys experiences with outsourcing parking services should weigh heavily in any decision that is made we must learn from others mistakes.

The residents have not been informed of the details of this deal, nor been offered the opportunity to dialogue on the topic. The RFP for this action was mentioned in late October via memo from the City Managers office; it was not broadly made known to the public, however, until the City Managers budget was published a week ago. To date, it has not been opened for public comment or input, nor have the limits for negotiations been established. As mentioned previously, in passing the charter amendment that outlawed speed and red-light cameras within the city, the voters recognized them directly for what they were pure revenue enhancement. It is unconscionable that the City administration would allow a similar plan affecting parking meters and services be railroaded through City Hall without the appropriate sunshine and input of the populace. This approach invites legislation from the constituency which would then restrict the Citys ability to outsource even a portion of the services even those services that would make financial and practical sense to outsource. Collectively, the community and businesses of Clifton will require that the public be afforded the opportunity to provide input and ultimately have the final say on this issue. The City must have learned from watching the Countys mishandling of the Paul Brown Stadium deal, that an extended lease is bad business. A 30 year lease is not only a ridiculous duration to a monopoly to a single, private, for-profit entity, it is also fiscally irresponsible bordering on a dereliction of the fiduciary duty entrusted upon City leadership by its residents. Creating a deal that would allow a private operator to double current parking rates and raise them annually thereafter; arbitrarily setting service hours and enforce their own regulations with impunity does not foster an environment that welcomes businesses, visitors and shoppers. We want Cliftons visitors to have fond memories of the venues, events, food and fun they had while in our neighborhood, not the expense they incurred or face a threat of unregulated, profit motivated enforcement for basic services like parking. We want them to want to come back again and again. Selling off the parking services as proposed is a short sighted, short term fix for a longer term problem. An initial city payment of $40 million does plug the budget gap - for 1 year. Subsequent to that, the significant, positive net revenue the city realizes from parking services is expected to be significantly diminished, leading to the question of what fills the budget gap going forward in future years? This compromises the citys ability to continue or increase support for small businesses and urban business districts such as Cliftons through block grants, NBDSF, NSP and other direct funding sources that have proven to be successful.

At the end of the day, the community of Clifton and its Merchants Association recognize that there is an urgent need to address the citys budget problems; however, we stand in opposition to this as an illconceived, short-sighted stop-gap solution. We recognize that there is wisdom in outsourcing some portion of the parking services such as management of surface lots and some garages, maintenance, or other specific areas within parking services that would realize a cost savings to the City. Similarly, we also recognize that there is likely room for increases in parking rates both in pay lots and at street meters. However the broad, omnibus approach of this proposal has the potential for too great a negative impact upon all members of this community and city with a highly limited benefit to a for-profit operator.

There is tremendous support within the community of Clifton for the ongoing growth and economic recovery of the City and our community by extension, and a significant amount of shared civic pride in all that has been accomplished by our leaders, business partners, and residents to bring this City and community to where it is today. We are in the midst of a renaissance that would not have occurred without vision and foresight of what this City can truly become. The events and development that go hand in hand that have built such momentum for this city over the past decade are ones that every Cincinnati resident can be proud of. This is why the budget issue, especially this matter of outsourcing of parking is so baffling; its counterintuitive nature runs in contrast to the vision and foresight that has been shown in recent history and is a direct threat to the forward momentum that this City has gained. The community of Clifton acknowledges that there is significant financial difficulty within our Citys boundaries, and the City has been enjoined by the populace via legislation NOT to raise income taxes, meaning that revenues to cover financial budget shortfalls must come from somewhere. The city leadership whom we look to for the execution of the vision for the development and growth of our city are once again, bailing water as opposed to patching the hole in the boat. We remain strongly opposed to this proposal as it stands today, and request that you to stand alongside and continue to support this community. We look forward to continuing the dialog on this topic and the further growth of our community and City as a whole.

Very Truly Yours,

Pete Schneider President, Clifton Town Meeting