San Jose parking official raises alarms about rate hike plan

A San Jose parking official is calling for the city to pause discussions on a controversial plan to hike parking rates, arguing it must first address longstanding concerns over the management of revenue from parking fees.

In an open letter sent Friday to councilmembers and city administrators, Downtown Parking Board Vice Chair Tamiko Rast leveled criticism against the Department of Transportation’s oversight of the roughly $15 million in revenue generated each year from meters and garages.

The money, which flows into the city’s Parking Fund, is San Jose’s primary funding source for parking infrastructure. Rast said the city has been underinvesting in such upkeep for years, leading to declining conditions at many city-run garages. To address the problem, she argues, the city should work to improve management of the fund, rather than relying wholly on rate increases.

She is also raising transparency concerns, alleging city transportation officials have been slow to provide updates to the parking board, undermining the body’s role advising councilmembers on parking related matters. Due to a quorum shortfall at its Sep. 2 meeting, the board has yet to weigh in on the plan to phase in incremental rate increases over the next five years.

“Before approving five years of higher rates and expanded enforcement, Council should require (the Department of Transportation) to provide complete financial and operational information, allow the Downtown Parking Board to formally review the proposal, establish a clear reinvestment plan, and address the transparency and oversight failures already identified,” Rast wrote in her letter.

The parking rate proposal is set to go before the City Council on Tuesday. It’s a revised plan drawn up over the course of the past three months after the original proposal sparked major pushback from members of the downtown business community, who warned charging visitors more for parking could harm the local economy.

Department of Transportation spokesperson Colin Heyne did not comment on Rast’s concerns, but said department officials will be prepared to do so if asked during Tuesday’s council meeting.

“Her concerns were directed to the mayor and City Council, and we will be happy to discuss them with the mayor and City Council at the meeting on Sept. 29,” he told San José Spotlight.

The proposed rate increases are part of the city’s broader effort to balance its ongoing budget deficit, which is expected to top $26 million this year. The new plan seeks to soften the financial blow to businesses and workers by spreading out the rate increases across five years instead of imposing them all at once. Under the proposal, the hourly rate for downtown parking meters would increase from $2 to $3 per hour beginning in 2027, and then to $4 in 2030.

Other changes would eventually lead to rate increases at city-run parking garages, and extend the operating time for meters in the downtown core by three hours, meaning they would shut off at 9 p.m. rather than 6 p.m.

Once the rate increases take full effect in 2030, they are expected to generate an additional $4 million in annual revenue to the Parking Fund. The added revenue will help offset the $1.2 million that will be diverted from the fund each year to help shore up the city’s budget, under the plan.

The proposal to tap San Jose’s Parking Fund to fill the city’s budget gap has inflamed longstanding complaints that parking fee revenue has too often been diverted away from transportation programs, leaving insufficient funds to properly maintain parking facilities.

Downtown business leaders said they’ve heard widespread complaints about conditions at city-run garages, including concerns about cleanliness, security, poor lighting, insufficient signage and malfunctioning elevators. They warn such conditions complicate efforts to entice customers to return to downtown.

In a memo laying out the revised parking fee plan, city administrators said stable funding will be important to address these concerns.

“Accordingly, maintaining current service levels and implementing further enhancements to security, cleaning, and facility maintenance requires sufficient ongoing resources within the Parking Fund,” Department of Transportation Director John Ristow and Budget Director Jim Shannon wrote.

Over the most recent fiscal year, which ended in June, revenue transfers from the Parking Fund to programs outside the Department of Transportation amounted to $972,000, according to city budget documents. Such expenditures have gone to fund fireworks, improvements at San Jose Downtown Ice and business development programs, among other priorities, according to Rast.

“Everything but parking,” Rast, a Japantown business owner, told San José Spotlight. “The fact of the matter is the money has been mismanaged. The city has already spent it.”

Rast’s letter also raises a litany of transparency concerns about the Department of Transportation’s management of the fund. She alleges the board’s oversight role has been stymied by incomplete public records, frequent meeting cancelations and spotty financial disclosures.

For example, when the latest rate increase proposal went before the downtown parking board at its Sept. 2 meeting, Rast said transportation staff waited too long to provide details about the plan, leaving board members to wade through the details as the meeting took place.

Rast also complained that she was only recently informed about a longstanding lawsuit involving The Globe Parking Garage at 25 S. Third St, which is owned by the city. In 2021, San Jose sued a homeowners association that is also involved in the facility’s management, alleging the organization overcharged the city for upkeep expenses, according to court filings.

Others in San Jose’s business community are also asking for the City Council to postpone Tuesday’s vote.

Brian Kurtz, CEO of the San Jose Downtown Association, said a deferral would give more time to draw up an investment plan to improve conditions at parking facilities.

“Increasing parking rates and adding new barriers to entry while seeking to increase visitors to downtown is detrimental to our progress,” Kurtz told San José Spotlight. “Doing so without addressing the significant user-experience needs in our parking assets sets us even further behind.”

Contact Keith Menconi at [email protected] or @KeithMenconi on X.