Dedham Feeling Shortchanged By "Smart" Parking Meters

DEDHAM, MA - Town officials are concerned that the modern parking meters installed in town in the summer of 2020 are leaving residents shortchanged, as residents have complained about receiving tickets.

A contract was signed with vendor Municipal Parking Services (MPS) in April 2019 and will expire this June.

"The intent was to modernize the parking meter situation in Dedham Square," said Town Manager Leon Goodwin at a recent Select Board meeting. Previously there had been numbered spaces with a curbside kiosk for at least six or seven years but was found to be inefficient over the past few years.

"These meters are so-called 'smart meters,' that were intended to simplify the parking process," he added. "I think that everyone in business understands that you should have some turnover parking for a healthy downtown."

Renee Johnson was hired as the town's parking enforcement officer as part of this process.

There have been "growing pains" with the new system, Goodwin explained, noting that the technology is "unforgiving" in a community that was accustomed to more lax parking restrictions.

"We have had some issues with the meters," noted John Sisson, the town's economic development director. "Some of them are self-inflicted; some of them are not."

He described both hardware and software issues with the meters as well as procedural issues that became evident when holiday parking went into effect. Meters accepted money when they shouldn't have and didn't properly display the holiday parking bracket.

"[MPS] made some promises," Sisson said. "And they didn't deliver."

He acknowledged that MPS also at one point suggested a simpler alternative.

There has been outreach about the system, including this instructional video on the town website.

Select Board member Kevin Coughlin said he has received "numerous complaints and phone calls" from constituents about fines.

"Our growing pains are costing people money," he said.

Select Board member Jim MacDonald added that a number of people have complained to him as well as on social media, saying "they are never coming back to the square."

Last year, the meters took in about $30,000, half of which was taken by MPS as a condition of maintaining the meters.

Select Board member Sarah MacDonald noted she is a "big believer in using parking meters philosophically" to keep the downtown active. However, she didn't know if MPS was the right partner to use for the meters or if the town shared some responsibility for not focusing on the original vision for the system.

One MPS program that Sisson said did not work well was the parking ambassador program. These part-time employees who were supposed to help people use the new meters were not clearly identifiable.

"We've put a lot of time and attention onto this issue of parking in Dedham Square during my time on the board," added Select Board member Dennis Teehan. "We've tried several different systems, and it just feels like we don't quite have the right balance yet for how we're going to manage this."

He added there was too much time and energy spent on charging residents using a "ridiculously overly complicated system" by having a better approach to parking management.

"We can prevent abuse of people parking for four or six hours without having a system that sticks it to the people who want to go get a cup of coffee with a parking ticket," he added. "We can accomplish both goals."

Chair Dimitria Sullivan requested that an update to the board be given with data in a month's time.

"We just have a system here that we really need to fix," she said.

The entire meeting can be viewed on this link to Dedham TV.