Mar 31, 2009 10:56 pm US/Central
Parking Meter Operator Gives Apology And Promise
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
The outrage over Chicago's high-priced but often malfunctioning parking meters has forced the city to take action. The situation is so bad, some people have actually been vandalizing them. But now, CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine says the meters will be fixed - and you won't be penalized.
How does the city plan to do that?
They're going to try, even though the company hired to empty and maintain the meters doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
They appeared on stage at City Hall as if they were facing a firing squad, asking for mercy.
"We are obviously acknowledging the fact that we took a little bit of a misstep," said Dennis Pedrelli of Chicago Parking Meters, LLC.
A little bit?
Five weeks after they
They're going to try, even though the company hired to empty and maintain the meters doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
They appeared on stage at City Hall as if they were facing a firing squad, asking for mercy.
"We are obviously acknowledging the fact that we took a little bit of a misstep," said Dennis Pedrelli of Chicago Parking Meters, LLC.
A little bit?
Five weeks after they
took over the meters and boosted parking rates, CBS 2 still found streets full of jammed meters. Yet in the last week, they've magically fixed nearly all of them?
"As of yesterday, we have addressed more than 90 percent of the operational issues," Pedrelli said.
Mike, the parking guy, who took us on a tour of meter madness last week finds that hard to believe.
When asked how long it took the city to fix the row of meters we spotlighted last week, Mike said, "It looked like about 12 hours. It looked like they came out the next morning and fixed it."
But when asked if Mike thinks that 90 percent of the problems are solved, he said, "I don't believe that to be true."
And with the city still in an uproar over meter madness, the new contractor had clearly been called to City Hall and told to apologize and make it right - beginning with dealing with those jammed meters.
"We kept increasing the amount of collectors as we were changing the meter rates, however we did underestimate it at some point as you know, that collection process was not ample enough to take up with the system," Pedrelli said.
On the far north side Tuesday night, near Devon and Western, Aftab Hussain tries to feed after driving in from Elmhurst for dinner. No time showed up on the meter.
"Every time we come in over in Chicago, I get tickets," Hussain said.
The very next meter had time on it but no sticker saying how much it cost.
More tales of woe poured in to theexpiredmeter.com, which has become a popular site during this meter madness.
Jon Gray of Uptown found two tickets on his car Sunday, but no sticker on the meter saying you had to feed it on Sunday.
Trying to dampen the uproar, the city assured drivers they won't get tickets at broken or jammed meters.
"I want to make it clear that motorists can park at an inoperable meter, but they must report the meter malfunction within 24 hours," said Mayor Daley's Chief Of Staff Paul Volpe.
Volpe and the CEO of a company which bought the rights to the meters for over a billion dollars appeared before reporters today and admitted things were a mess.
But we already knew that, with e-mails like Randi's:
"I am outraged by the current parking meter situation... my husband and I cannot afford a parking space," Randi wrote.
"I do not like that the mayor is selling Chicago services and property to anyone with top dollar.....he is outsourcing all the jobs," Jo wrote.
The question is whether those who now have the jobs know what they're doing.
When asked why LAZ, the company that owns the privatized meters, was hired when their core business is garages and not parking meters, Pedrelli said, "We underestimated our resources. LAZ is a very professional organization and I think they've done a great job, frankly."
When asked if he's ever seen this level of outrage from the people of Chicago that we're seeing with parking meters, Volpe said, "We haven't done this before so I really don't really understand…"
We'll take that as a no.
But the furor which ranks right up there with uncleared streets after snowstorms is a big concern, or the two men wouldn't have been speaking today.
The rate hikes and broken or mismarked meters seem to be driving the customers away in droves - which doesn't seem to bother the mayor's chief of staff.
When asked how he can explain streets full of empty meters that used to be full all the time, Volpe said, "I would also say this, from the city's perspective, we received our $1.2 billion up-front payment, and if there's a reduction in the use of the system, that is a risk that is born my CPM."
In other words, sorry.
The company may not have figured on a boycott triggered by making us pump quarters into meters like gamblers feed slot machines. They also didn't do themselves any good by hiring an operator, which industry sources say wasn't equipped to handle the most ambitious public-private partnership yet. We've been trying to talk to that operator for the last week. But maybe their work speaks for itself.
To report a broken parking meter, call the City of Chicago's ticket helpline at (312) 744-PARK.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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