The Derby Board of Aldermen Thursday voted to disband the city’s Parking Authority as of June 30.
The five-member volunteer authority will transfer its supervision over the Thompson Place parking garage, municipal parking lots, street meters and a handful of employees to Mayor Anita Dugatto’s office.
The Aldermen hope the move will help the city get a better handle on the parking garage, an old facility that needs millions in repairs. They’re also hoping that items such as processing payroll and removing snow will be less costly by absorbing those functions into city government.
When Mayor Anthony Staffieri was in office, members of the parking authority wanted the city to have a referendum on repairing the building. However, the issue never made it to the ballot.
The issue also didn’t move forward when Mayor Anita Dugatto took office in 2013.
Instead, the city moved forward with a $5 million referendum to replace three school roofs, and an approximate $30 million referendum to repair the city’s sewer system. Voters approved both.
Eventually the volunteers on the parking authority resigned, saying they were frustrated at the lack of progress.
The Aldermen then appointed a new parking authority board.
The new members eventually decided that the best way to supervise the garage and meter collection was to put the operation under direct city control.
A budget given to the mayor by the Derby Parking Authority shows it operating with a $32,000 loss.
Between July 2014 and February 2015, the authority generated about $139,000 in revenue, which includes garage receipts, metered parking collection, parking tickets and monthly tenant parking in the garage.
But the authority’s expenses totaled about $171,000, including about $81,000 in salaries and $44,000 for property maintenance and repairs. Officials estimated it employed about five part-time employees, a parking enforcement officer and the director.
The budget shows the authority spent about $25,000 in property maintenance and repairs in August and September 2014, about six months after the Aldermen closed the garage for emergency repairs.
Putting the authority — now called the Derby parking “division” — under the mayor’s control will presumably eliminate the position of parking authority director, since those duties are being assumed by the mayor.
Those decisions will be made by the end of June, Dugatto said.
“Everyone is employed up until we take over June 30. Then they all have to be reinstated,” Alderman Ron Sill said.
Sill said running the parking division will be a challenge for the city.
“We don’t have a lot of income coming in from it and we know there are major, major expenses that need to be done. Where are we going to get the money?” Sill said.
