YOUNGSTOWN –The city administration will ask permission in late March from council members to seek proposals to hire a company to enforce downtown parking.

Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works, told council’s parking committee Wednesday that the administration wants to find ways to monitor on-street parking, how to pay for enforcement as well as the expense of installing kiosks for people to use to pay for parking or to pay by phone.

“We’ve come to the conclusion that we want it meterless,” Shasho said. “There’s no question, we don’t want our streets cluttered with meters again so it’s going to be license-plate based with some paid kiosks. That’s part of the proposal process and entertaining different types of technology.”

The city discontinued its contract with ABM Parking on enforcement after it removed all of its meters in June.

There is no enforcement of hourly parking in downtown, resulting in workers parking their vehicles for the entire day in spots, Shasho said.

When ABM was used, the city was paying about $10,000 a month for enforcement and only $2,000 in tickets were issued per month, said city Finance Director Kyle Miasek.

The bigger issue is that many of those getting ticketed don’t pay, Miasek said.

“With a plan in place we don’t want to subsidize,” he said. “That is a serious concern and it needs to be considered when we weigh options. What’s important is we have to make sure that if we’re going to ticket people that there is enforcement in going after payment. That is our biggest problem. It’s easy to write tickets. It’s just making sure that we’re using a third party or the courts to collect those funds. At the end of the day, we can look into that also instead of just setting a rate.”

Miasek recommended the parking committee invite an official with the city clerk of courts to the next meeting in April to discuss options on enforcement.

The clerk of courts office in 2019 proposed putting tire boots and / or windshield barnacles on vehicles of the worst repeat parking ticket offenders, but the proposal never went anywhere.

It was raised again Wednesday with Shasho saying, “We should proceed cautiously and in a controlled manner. Jumping into something too rash is something “that isn’t going to be received real well by the public or the business owners downtown.”

Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward, who represents downtown, said, “In no way do I want to run off any potential customers or patrons of downtown businesses. We want all the people we can down here. But at the same time, we don’t want people occupying spots for eight hours while they’re at work. Some type of enforcement has to happen.”

Shasho said: “The No. 1 complaint I hear is people just don’t know where to park. It shouldn’t be that complicated.”

Also discussed Wednesday — as it was during the Jan. 29 parking committee meeting — was a city-owned lot behind the former Realty Tower at East Federal and South Champion streets that the city let the building’s owner use. With the building demolished after a May 28 explosion, council wants to reclaim the lot and let the city again use it.

Jason Small, a senior assistant law director, said a final review of the lease is needed before any action could be taken. But his initial look at the lease was contingent on people living at Realty, which is no longer the case.

Once a decision is made by the law department, Miasek said the administration will request council make improvements to the lot should the city reclaim it.