State Sen. Vincent Fort just dropped a new bill that could have everyone’s favorite parking enforcement agency, ParkAtlanta, driven outta town.
Fort told The Signal that ParkAtlanta has spent its tenure in the city preying on residents and travelers alike for “profit motives,” and he believes the age of third-party parking enforcement must come to an end.
In 2009, the Wisconsin-based company Duncan Solutions made an agreement with Atlanta to take over the city’s parking services. This partnership created PARKAtlanta, which rakes in about $6 million for the city each year, with the remaining profit going to the company.
PARKAtlanta’s seven-year contract is scheduled to end in September and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has pledged not to renew the city’s contract with PARKAtlanta.
Christina Cruz-Benton, a spokesperson for the mayor, did not specify the city’s parking enforcement plans for the tail end of 2016. However, starting Feb. 1, private companies like PARKAtlanta began submitting business proposals to take over Atlanta’s parking services.
So Fort hopes that private third-party parking companies will soon be booted all together.
“When you have a third party company situation, their profit motive is predatory,” Fort said. They’ve been booting people before the time has expired and preying on people, handing out tickets as soon as the time expires.”
Anne Torres, director of communications for the city of Atlanta, dismissed Fort’s proposed bill.
“We have no comment on this because it is meaningless and has no chance of ever becoming law,” she said.
In response to Torres’ remark, Fort said, “The Mayor’s office is more concerned with protecting predatory companies than they are with protecting the citizens of Atlanta.”
Sen. Fort’s resolution would require a constitutional amendment and be subject to a statewide vote. Constitutional amendments must have a two-thirds vote in the Georgia House and Senate in order pass and be put on the voter ballot.
Georgia State student D’andre Jackson said he agrees with Sen. Fort that the city of Atlanta enforce parking laws.
“PARKAtlanta is quick to give you a ticket,” Jackson said. “Sometimes you can negotiate with them, but I feel like because they’re a private company they’re after the money more. It’d be more fair for the city to handle parking.”
Another Georgia State student Shane Scott said the tickets will flow regardless of who enforces parking.
“I don’t see the difference between the city or a private company taking over parking,” Scott said. “I don’t think they’d give out less tickets.”
In Sen. Fort’s opinion, the city is much less likely to be profit hungry than private companies have been.
“It’s bad public policy to allow private companies to handle law enforcement,” Fort said. “It’s obvious over the years that what PARKAtlanta has done is far beyond anything we’ve seen before.”
