Saying they were “undermined by distrust and non-communication” from City Hall and angry that a multi-million dollar repair job isn’t being sent to voters for approval, four of the five members of the Derby Parking Authority resigned in protest Wednesday.
“Members of the authority have been dealing with this situation since 2005, when we first started getting studies showing the garage was deteriorating and needed to be addressed. Every year it gets worse,” Joseph Moore, the authority’s former chairman, said Friday.
The Derby Parking Authority, a volunteer, appointed body, oversees the Municipal Parking Garage on Thompson Place and the employees who work there. The mass resignations do not affect the employees, including the meter enforcement officers and Leo Moscato, the authority’s executive director.
Moore, Anthony Szewczyk, Delphine J. Krezel and Jack Moran signed a two-page resignation letter outlining their frustration. It was delivered to Mayor Anita Dugatto Wednesday, discussed briefly at an Aldermen’s meeting Thursday, and filed in the town clerk’s office Friday afternoon. It is printed below.
Rick Bartholomew is now the last man standing on the Parking Authority board.
The members resigned because for years they have been pushing, unsuccessfully, for a referendum to make repairs to the garage, which holds about 300 spaces.
In 2010, city officials said they couldn’t get any grant money to make repairs.
It looked like the garage referendum was going to happen in 2013, but it didn’t — although the city managed to get a $5 million referendum out to voters to replace the roofs on three school buildings.
It looked like the parking garage referendum was going to happen this November, but it’s gone off track, again.
The parking authority members were especially disappointed that the city is moving to put two other matters out to Derby voters in November — some $30 million in repairs to the city’s sewer system, and $3.75 million in road repairs (story coming Tuesday because we are hoarding stories to get through the Labor Day weekend).
“A referendum vote is the democratic way forward. Voters can keep it open or close it. That’s their right as taxpayers,” the resignation letter concludes.
Mayor Dugatto said Friday the Parking Authority needs to do more work to get the garage referendum ready.
“I’m sorry to see volunteers go. They were presenting myself and the Board of Aldermen with a number of options, but they wanted us to pick what to do,” Dugatto said, referring to a $35,000 engineering study paid for by the authority, which estimated costs for the garage ranging from $6.8 million to $16.4 million, depending on whether the city wanted to tear the building down or do extensive renovations.
Dugatto contrasted the Parking Authority with the city’s Water Pollution Control Authority. Its members and engineering consultants held a series of public forums on the need for a sewer repair referendum, and the WPCA’s chairman stands up at each Aldermen meeting and gives a report to the Aldermen.
Moore said the Derby Parking Authority gave City Hall piles of documents, including several engineering studies, all in an effort to get the issue to the people.
Moore said the authority did everything it could to get the issue to voters, but the Board of Aldermen wouldn’t move it forward, nor give a reason as to why it was dead in the water.
Meanwhile, Dugatto has been collecting data from the Parking Authority via a formal Freedom of Information request from the city’s lawyer, another move that rankled the authority.
The mayor said she was collecting the information, which includes financial statements, in order to have an informed conversation with the Aldermen about how to proceed.
Parking Authority meeting minutes from August show the authority finished the last fiscal year with a loss of nearly $75,000. The authority attributes the loss to costs associated with the emergency closure of the garage earlier this year due to safety concerns.
Dugatto said previous years’ financial data show the authority turning a profit.
“Why weren’t they building some type of reserve?” Dugatto asked.
The mayor said the parking garage is crumbling because of a lack of planning, a point picked up by Alderman David Lenart.
Lenart asked twice about the status of the Parking Authority at an Aldermen’s meeting Thursday, after hearing a “rumor” the members of the authority had resigned. He chided the mayor Friday for not sharing the resignation letter with the Aldermen.
“It’s a shame we have to learn about things through rumors on the street,” Lenart said.
Given the recent conflict between the Parking Authority and the Aldermen, Lenart said it is time for the elected officials to sit down and hash out the problems — before the mayor appoints new people to replace the people who resigned.
The Board of Aldermen have tentatively scheduled a meeting about the parking authority for Sept. 9.
Dugatto said the city could reappoint members to the parking authority, or bring the parking garage under the direct supervision of the Board of Aldermen.
A third option — see if the garage can be privatized, Dugatto said.
“We need to take a look at not just the parking garage, but the needs for the whole downtown and beyond,” she said, noting the city is embarking on a review to do just that.
