STONE HARBOR – Stone Harbor took a public relations hit when it announced that the borough had issued 564 parking tickets in May compared with 33 in May 2022. The over 1,600% increase was picked up by numerous media outlets.
Things just got worse for the borough’s image as a welcoming resort. Borough Council member Reese Moore used the July 3 council meeting to announce that 915 parking tickets had been issued in June, a 62% increase over May’s number.
Something has gone very wrong with the borough’s implementation of a new parking regimen that depends heavily on the use of a ParkMobile app through smartphones. Moore expressed concern that the number of tickets being issued is going up exponentially with “the busiest part of the summer about to start.”
The borough implemented a new parking strategy, May 1, ending its use of meters and kiosks and turning to the ParkMobile app as the principal method for paying for parking.
Administrator Manny Parada shepherded the change. Parada said at the July 3 meeting that the goal of the transition was greater efficiency and budget savings for the borough that came with ending reliance on aging kiosks and meters.
“This was never intended to increase revenue from parking violations,” Parada said.
While the increase in tickets may be an unintended consequence, it is certainly a concerning one. Moore suggested a two-week free parking “holiday,” while the Public Works Committee that he chairs delves into the reasons for the dramatic surge in tickets and defines the potential actions the borough should take.
Moore’s suggestion had no support from the council and even generated public comments in opposition to it. The chief concern was that a two-week parking holiday at the start of the busiest part of the summer season would open “a can of worms” regarding how to initiate and end it. Moore’s motion for the two-week holiday was defeated on a 5-1 vote later in the meeting.
The meeting resulted in no explicit plan for dealing with the surge in parking tickets.
The new app-driven parking strategy makes enforcement easier. A possible lack of adequate signage and some confusion in the public information rollout of the new parking regimen has left many in the borough vulnerable to parking tickets.
Mayor Judith Davies-Dunhour asked Parada if a similar increase in tickets accompanied the implementation of the ParkMobile app in neighboring Sea Isle City. Parada said that information was being gathered but he did not yet know the answer.
What the council was apparently unaware of is that Sea Isle overlapped its kiosks and meters with the transition to ParkMobile in the first year.
The council discussed the spike in tickets written in May at its June 20 meeting. There was no new information or analysis available at the July 3 meeting except for Moore’s suggestion of a two-week holiday and the new knowledge that 915 tickets were written in June.
The question facing Stone Harbor officials is do they have a set of actions that can positively impact the somewhat bumpy implementation of the borough’s app-driven parking strategy. If not, July’s number for parking tickets may be truly scary.
To contact the author, Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.
