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Oct 01, 2023

Springfield collected over $70,000 last year from free parking meters

The mostly free parking in downtown Springfield isn't likely to change - or at

The mostly free parking in downtown Springfield isn't likely to change - or at least not soon.

Any return to parking meters in downtown Springfield would have to be accompanied by a "smart technology" component, said Mayor Jim Langfelder.

"Feeding the meters" hasn't been required of motorists since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

Still, the city's treasurer's office collected $51,057.21 in coins dropped in the meters during the 2022 calendar year. That doesn't take in a little in over $20,000 that downtown businesses and other agencies paid for "bagged meters," or reserving spots.

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The city has periodically made announcements about not having to plug the meters and some businesses even have signs reminding the public to "don't feed the meters."

The issue was touched upon at a recent mayor's forum.

Langfelder, who is seeking a third term as mayor, said if there is a return to enforced metered parking, the meters should be "convenient," that is, they should accept credit cards in addition to coins. Langfelder would like to see a Smartphone app developed that would map out available downtown parking.

"With parking meters, it's more about moving traffic, so we'll monitor it and assess the need," Langfelder said recently. "Right now, there doesn't appear to be the need to bring meters back because you drive around and there's available parking."

While plopping coins into meters isn't necessary, Langfelder admitted he still does it "from time to time."

An Office of Public Works employee still collects the coins in canisters and drives them to Bank of Springfield, where the motor vehicle parking fund account is set up.

Motorists aren't entirely off the hook. They still need to adhere to parking time limits posted on city signs. That means while they aren't feeding the meters, motorists still have to abide by the time limits, two hours, for instance, or risk getting a $10 ticket.

Langfelder's mayoral rival, City Treasurer Misty Buscher, said the meters are remnants of the past.

Even if a number of State of Illinois employees return to working in downtown Springfield, Buscher said she wouldn't want the meters replaced.

Instead, Buscher would opt for higher parking tickets.

Buscher said downtown workers "roll the dice" by overstaying their welcome at time-enforced meters.

"It costs at least $30 to have a parking space downtown for the month, so it's cheaper for them to get the tickets," Buscher said at the forum. "If you make the ticket hurt, the people who work downtown will not take those spaces and they will be available for the people coming to visit."

Langfelder countered that getting parking tickets is the most aggravating part of the ordeal.

"In all my years at the city, that's where you get the complaints. That's where you get the pushback," he said. "I've heard numerous people, from both visitors or individuals who live here, who say, 'I was down here trying to patronize downtown, and I got this $10 ticket or whatever the amount is, and they're flabbergasted by it. It's the tickets that drive them crazy."

There are fewer office workers downtown, Buscher contended, and the pandemic "has changed how our workforce works, from now until forever. People want hybrid work environments."

Buscher said a lack of transparency surrounding the parking meter process prompted her to file Freedom of Information Act requests with the mayor's office in 2018, when she also hired her own attorney.

The matter involved IPS Group, which was brought in to assist Public Works with idea of possibly involving "smart" parking meters.

At the time, Buscher said she wanted a breakdown of what IPS would be charging the city so she could run an analysis on the expenses of its current system as opposed to IPS's system or having no meters at all. Buscher said she was initially shut out of that information.

Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin, an attorney who has an office and owns property downtown, said the amount collected from the meters last year didn't surprise him.

In 2020, The State Journal-Register reported that the city collected nearly $508,000 in 2015, according to the city budget office.

"People are habitual," he said. "They don't pay attention to news as much as they did. You have a lot of people who don't know what the current rules are. They play it safe. They'd rather avoid a parking ticket and putting in a quarter or two is playing it safe."

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, [email protected], twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.