Parking Blog had an interesting comment here. Its author is a blogger that apparently has taken city government a verbose form. However that’s not the issue here.
Should a municipality hire the same parking operator to run two garages side by side? More importantly, should the municipality hire an operator to run a garage next to a private one that it runs under a lease agreement? (If you don’t know the difference, check out PT’s upcoming April issue and the PT the Auditor column).
I know of a case in the private sector where an operator under a management contract in garage "a" shifted monthly parkers into nearby garage "b" it ran as a lease, thus increasing its bottom line. Operator wins, garage A loses.
Not a lot the private sector can do about this issue, except keep a close eye on their vendors. In the public sector it is also a difficult issue. Is it better to have one contract with one operator in a city, or to have multiple contracts, a different one for each garage?
My commenter above says BOMA has the answer, multiple operators. I doubt if BOMA has even considered the problem, since they seem reluctant to bring the dreaded word "parking" up at their conferences and seminars.
What do you think, operators?
JVH
