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Warsaw Common Councilman Mike Klondaris asked Mayor Jeff Grose Monday at the council’s meeting how the new parking rollout was going, and that led to a bit of discussion.
The main point of that discussion was a reminder the first two hours of parking downtown is free.
“But remember, no action. It’ll be a trial phase for several months and it’s just a variety of unsure issues - the fly’s in the ointment - we’ll have to work out, but, again, your patience with us and support is going to allow us to roll something out. It is change. I make the argument that we haven’t done something like this in decades, and I believe we’re going to be more efficient. Remember the targeted areas. But, it’ll be several months where we’ll try to encourage the public to learn and see really there is no change: Everybody’s getting two hours of free parking, unless you want to park longer,” Grose said.
He said it’s being implemented, but the enforcement of it is “being very friendly.”
Grose said the city is doing everything it can to evaluate the needs of the downtown merchants when it comes to parking for employees. “We’ll be doing a few creative things there to see if we can’t get employees off the street and park in a certain parking lot,” he said, adding City Planner Justin Taylor and Community Economic and Development Director Jeremy Skinner are working on that.
It’ll take some patience, but Grose said they will know a lot more by the end of the summer, fall and heading into next year.
“The whole idea is not to make it more difficult for the merchants and customers. It’s to make it better,” he said.
Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins said the hardest thing has been trying to get people to understand they still have two free hours and nothing really has changed there. “For most of the people that come downtown, to pick up something or grab a bite to eat, they don’t need even two hours,” she said.
Grose agreed most people aren’t downtown for more than two hours. “Now you have to worry about getting a fine if you don’t get out to your car in time, and with this new system, if you know it’s going to be a longer stay, you can engage (with a cell phone), and we do it all the time, and pay a small amount of money and not worry about being fined and running out in the rain or running outside to move your car. I’m hoping, again, it will be better,” Grose said.
If it isn’t better, he said it’ll be evaluated in the public arena and they’ll make more changes for the good of the downtown.
Council President Jack Wilhite pointed out the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce put out a video that walks people through getting set up with the app and how it’s used. While the video doesn’t answer all questions, Wilhite said it’s a good start.
“I encourage people to download the app and get things set up before they ever go uptown because it’ll make the experience so much better,” Wilhite said.
Passport Parking is the name of the app.
Wilhite said, “People need to understand: As difficulties that we may have with this app and the way it is used, is mainly because we are the only city that is providing the first two hours free. You go to any other city with this app and you are charged from the very first minute. So we have tried our best to make sure that people get that first two hours free.”
Law Enforcement Recordings
Warsaw Police Department Chief Scott Whitaker presented to the council an ordinance to regulate fees for law enforcement video recording requests.
He said he worked with city attorney Scott Reust to establish the fees. Along with Clerk-Treasurer Lynne Christiansen, they determined the best way was through an ordinance to govern the fees.
“Statutorily, they are required to be used for specific purposes, which is cameras, other equipment to use in connection to the department’s law enforcement recording program, providing training concerning law enforcement recordings and to defray expenses of storing, producing and copying law enforcement recordings,” Whitaker said.
The fee will go into the Law Enforcement Continuing Education Fund.
According to a copy of the ordinance, “The fee for the agency providing a duplicate of a law enforcement recording must be paid in advance and shall be:” $50 for videos up to 30 minutes, $100 for videos between 30 and 60 minutes and $150 for videos longer than 60 minutes.
Whitaker said the biggest cost they have is the software and the actual computer equipment used. Unfortunately, the fees won’t cover salaries and manpower to produce and review the requested videos.
“The software is a redacting software, so the idea is to redact information to protect juveniles and privacy. That could be blurring portions of the video, driver’s license; it could be removing specific audio. But it’s all noted that it’s been redacted,” Whitaker said.
Christiansen pointed out the ordinance also addresses retention because they have to keep video for so long. The ordinance states, “The department shall retain an unaltered, unobscured law enforcement recording for at least 190 days after the date of recording.”
The council approved the ordinance on first reading. The second required reading will be at the council’s May 4 meeting.
First Responders
Earlier in the meeting, Wilhite gave a report on a ride-along he had with a WPD officer.
“One of the things that prompted me to do a ride-along with the police department was - as you know, we’re faced with impacts due to Senate Bill 1 last year. Property taxes and revenue that we receive. I’ve had residents suggest that we deal with this simply by cutting the budget. Some pointed directly to police and fire staffing,” he said.
To better understand the issue, Wilhite asked Whitaker if he could do a ride-along and spend some time with the officers and see their daily work first-hand.
“This is something that I learned just how important it was from my previous career. It’s always important to see from - back then it was the shop floor - to see from the workers’ perspective just what they were up against. And a lot of times, they had a lot of really good ideas to add to the process,” Wilhite said.
What he observed on his first ride-along, he said, was a Friday night. He detailed that experience in a two-page report to the council members.
“It was very enlightening. Here I was going along mainly to observe Warsaw Police Department and one of the first stops we had that night brought in the EMTs, the fire department, police and CARES. And what I observed made clear that reducing personnel would mean critical services simply would not have the effectiveness our citizens have come to expect,” Wilhite stated. “When things to right, the public rarely hears about it. Rarely, if at all. Only when something goes wrong, that’s when they hear about it. That’s why I felt like it was so important for me to prepare a report and get it in front of you ... to show how things go right and just why it is so important for each one of these departments that we’ve got.”
He said the citizens deserve to know what their tax dollars actually provide and that “we’re handling it responsibly.” He said he wanted everyone to understand how effective and essential the first responders are.
