Why No Interest in La Mesa Village Parking Commission and Money Raised?

How much money do you think the parking meters in La Mesa Village generate?

You’d be shocked.

How does the money get used?

You could have a say.

My big question, however, is: “How to get people interested in attending a meeting where the use of hundreds of thousands of dollars collected from parking meters is discussed?”

The attendance at the Parking Commission meeting last night, with a current balance of over $700,000, had only three La Mesa Village Merchants, two reporters and two commissioner spouses, beyond the usual city employees. Where are the concerned La Mesa citizens? 

Granted, a 5:30 p.m. meeting is difficult for some folks to attend.

Last night a report was given by hired experts, paid for by the parking meter fund, on a possible Parking Structure located somewhere in the Village area.  The proposal was not site-specific.  I think at some point we’ve all thought a parking structure would be nice, but last night the report concluded that the cost of such a structure — over the life of the bulding (25 years?)— would cost the city at least $16,000 per parking space. Never would the city see a profit, according to these experts. 

Further the experts stated that the current number of parking spaces only reach about 70% of capcity during their study phase, so they recommend that until new development in the Village area, that is, tens of thousands of additional square footage of business space occurs, a parking structure is not needed.

It was pointed out by someone in the audience that currently there are folks who do not shop or dine in the village area due to the difficult parking situation.  If a structure was built, we would see an increase in business activity.  Also, the many events that occur in the village area throughout the year (Antique Street Fair, Flag Day Parade, 13 weeks of Back To The ‘50s Car Show, 3 days of Oktoberfest and 2 days of Christmas In The Village) would fill a parking structure to capacity, several times over, thereby reducing the city cost.

Also discussed was the current balance in the Parking Meter Fund, well over $700,000, of which approximately $200,000 was readily available to spend.  The remaining balance was needed to cover two years worth of operating expenses and other fees.

A noted improvement in the quality of last night’s meeting was the professionalism of the commissioners.  There were only a couple ‘jabs’ at  “those who will, no doubt, be blogging about this meeting.” I wonder WHO he was talking about? 

In the past, when no one was in the audience, the chairperson would call the meeting to order, look out at the empty chairs and say, “I see we have no concerned La Mesa merchants today.”

When I started attending these meetings, I suggested during the Public Comments section of the agenda, that better notice of these meetings needed to occur.  Currently it’s up to the concerned citizen to surf the city Of La Mesa website to find out when the meetings are held or if they have been cancelled.  And that city website is complicated, to say the least. 

So here you go:  3rd Tuesday of each month, 5:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers.

For the last several months I have been sending out email notices in an effort to increase the attendance and fill those empty chairs.  I got involved when I read a blog from this news site, www.lamesa.patch.com about proposed projects the Parking Commission was considering. 

I was grateful to learn about these projects and I think it is noteworthy for our citizens.  But both the Parking Commission chairperson and vice-chairperson have voiced admonitions toward the commissioner for speaking out about these projects.  The chair actually asked the city attorney to stop the commissioner from publicly speaking about anything being considered in these ‘public’ meetings.

There is a reason this fund is discussed in a public forum—this is a large amount of money generated by the public.  So, my question to you is this: What could you have asked, said, or recommended at this meeting last night?

I hope you will get involved.  Last night I had to leave before the meeting was over, I’d love to have known that you were there until the end.