With parking control officers being understaffed and their vehicles all surpassing their end-of-life use expectancy by
more than five years, Burbank Police have received the City Council’s blessing to bring in a third-party service provider to patrol Burbank streets for parking violations.
According to the Staff Report, the Police Department is planning a one-year hybrid service delivery pilot program. Currently, there are only six parking enforcement employees with the department having trouble filling empty positions. All current employees will continue to work in partnership with the third-party vendor.
Together they will provide 75% to 90% of parking enforcement duties, including enforcement of BMC and CVC parking codes, violations for parking in restricted zones, time-restricted parking, street sweeping, 72-hour
restrictions, residential and commercial parking, and disabled parking.
The outside contractor will provide their own vehicles, uniforms, and equipment but will also be clearly identifiable as performing parking enforcement for the City of Burbank.
According to the report, the parking division, located in the Police Department’s budget, currently allocates $822,640.75 for 10 parking control officers and a supervisor (there are currently six) and $62,126.40 to maintain the fleet of parking control vehicles. To replace the outdated vehicles, the Department would have to spend approximately $480,000 to replace the 12 Jeep Wranglers. They will wait to see how the pilot program works before authorizing the purchase of new vehicles.
What was not mentioned in the staff report is if the outside parking enforcement officers will be used to close down streets during emergencies as the present parking control officers do as needed.
Also, by bringing in an outside vendor, it will give the Department more flexibility, and provide longer hours for parking enforcement, including the 3 am to 5 am parking restrictions in some areas of the city.
With the City studying to add metered parking first at the Downtown Metro Station and possibly in all City-owned parking structures, there will be more parking officers needed down the line for ticketing.
While the Police Department says that there will be no cost at this time to the City’s General Fund for the implementation of the parking enforcement pilot program, the pilot program will be fully funded utilizing salary savings from current and future vacant positions within the Police Department’s existing budget.
Department officials did not have the information available on how much in revenue the current parking control officers bring in a year to offset expenses or if there is an excess that goes into the City’s General Fund.
No date was given as to when the change would happen and a company has yet to be chosen but cities such as Glendale, Pasadena, Alhambra, West Hollywood, Arcadia, and Inglewood have all contracted with service providers to assist their cities with parking enforcement needs
Might as well hire private security to patrol the City too. I smell a rat. There must be a budget concern here. The only division in the Police Department that generates income is the Traffic Division. Why would you hire outside? Is Biden the Chief?
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