Mayor Called a 'Grinch' on Holiday Parking

Mayor Eric Spear’s proposal to reduce the number of free holiday parking days to generate more revenue and reduce the property tax rate didn’t get much love from city residents or the City Council on Monday night at City Hall.

After he attempted to pass a motion to reduce the free holiday parking days from 18 to 10 days at Christmastime and increase parking enforcement times until 9 p.m. each day, the council instead unanimously voted to refer the plan to the city’s Parking and Traffic Safety Committee.

Robert Hassold, who co-owns the Tugboat Alley store on Bow Street with his wife, Natalie, leveled some very harsh criticism at the mayor before the council’s vote.

“Eric, do you want to be remembered as the Grinch who stole the spirit of Christmas?” Hassold asked Spear during the public comment portion of Monday night’s council meeting.

Approximately 15 percent of the city’s residents live within walking distance of the downtown, Hassold said. He asked if they should they be taxed for wanting to spend time downtown when they are already spending money to go out to eat and enjoy entertainment.

“The message here is about greed, where does it end and when will it lead to our demise,” Hassold said. “Eric, have a good sleep and stop dreaming up these crazy ideas.”

Earlier this month, Spear introduced his idea to reduce the number of free holiday parking days from 18 days to 10 days per year and extend parking enforcement until 9 p.m. instead of 7 p.m.

According to Spear, these changes, if adopted by the City Council by a simple majority vote, would raise nearly $400,000 in new parking revenues that could be then applied to the more than $92.8 million budget the council just passed on Monday.

Spear said the free holiday parking days reduction would generate $53,000 in revenue and cut the property tax rate by 1 cent. He said the two hours of additional on street parking enforcement would raise another $360,000 and cut the tax rate another 9 cents.

On Monday night, Spear said his idea had merit because “in this case going back to what was the case before we hit severe recession is a reasonable goal.”

As much as the city would like to continue to extend the good faith gesture to city residents and visitors during the holidays, Spear said the city could still offer less free parking days and provide city residents with more property tax relief.

Councilor Ken Smith, who serves as chairman of the Parking and Traffic Safety Committee, said his panel found that the policy put forward by former Mayor Evelyn Sirrell  is really appreciated by people who want to come downtown as well as businesses.

“The policy was extended because we found that was when most of the residents were home for the holidays and their kids were home for the holidays,” Smith said.

Smith also stressed that parking enforcement still takes place. He said city parking collectors chalk the tires of cars to make sure they do not occupy a parking space for longer than the allotted time frame.

Councilor Brad Lown did not favor Councilor Nancy Novelline’s motion to refer Spear’s proposal to the Parking and Traffic Safety Committee for further study. Lown said it is an issue the council can decide.

“My fear is that downtown workers or other workers would park in the same spot all day without getting a ticket,” Lown said. “We’re trying to be Grinchy with the budget is what we are trying to do.”

Councilor Jack Thorsen said the council has plenty of time to decide this policy since Christmas is so far away on the calendar. He said he would prefer to hear back from the committee that is responsible for providing the information.

“People really do smile and they comment to me when they see the Happy Holiday signs on the meters,” Smith said. He said there are also people who still feed the parking meters because they don’t realize there is free parking so the city is still receiving some parking revenue.

Lown said decreasing it from 18 to 10 days will not decrease the goodwill or the number of happy people who will be downtown.