Chicago Parking Meters LLC Apologizes For Missteps
This afternoon at city hall, Chicago Parking Meters LLC was made the whipping boy by the Daley Administration for all the problems that have occurred with the parking meter lease deal.
The mayor’s chief of staff Paul Volpe has some harsh words for the lessee of Chicago’s parking meter system saying “These mistakes are simply unacceptable,”
CEO for Chicago Parking Meters LLC, Dennis Pedrelli essentially apologized saying they, “under-estimated the resources required” in the transition to complete meter rate changes, fix broken meters, etc.
Pedrelli says that the company will halt it’s own ticket enforcement, is hiring more personnel to help with meter repairs and emptying meters and claims that 90% of the problems are solved.
Yeah, right.
Check out CBS 2′s news video coverage of the press conference with a brief appearance by that dimwit the Parking Ticket Geek.
And of course, the incomparable Fran Spielman has more of the juicy details in her Sun-Times report.
Not one to critize my own boss……but was it really that much better under city control?
So maybe they are stepping up efforts to fix the meters, maybe they will stop writing tickets for the time being – but apparently the rates are staying, and the 24 hours a day, 7 days a week policy isn’t changing.
Don’t they realise that’s probably a bigger part of the problem?
Who cares if the meters are jammed or broken – that’s just more free parking. Why would if satisfy people to have ALL the meters working every hour of every day at high prices?
Something tells me they don’t really understand what’s going on.
Has anyone read or know where the 24 hour parking is located…., read you Dumb _____? it is only downtown in certain areas…. if it is so expense, by a monthly parking pass, like i did and get on with you life…..
this is just crazy that we are acting this way……
@joe: March 31st @ 9:13 pm
No joe… it is not crazy that we are acting this way. What’s crazy is that you just don’t get it.
Greg is correct – “they” don’t really understand that they are provoking the modern-day equivalent of The Boston Tea Party. What’s going on now in the media is a diversion.
The fact is… WE don’t want a CORPORATION to own OUR parking places and charge US whatever they want so WE can park on OUR streets. We can’t vote a greedy and/or incompetent CEO out of office.
OUR EMPLOYEES (elected representatives) ARE NOT LISTENING TO OUR VOICES… OUR VOTES DON’T MATTER.
I’m looking forward to the exponential increase in sabotage… to defeat and drive out a private corporation’s attempt to severely affect the ability of the taxpayers to freely and conveniently enjoy their city.
And while I’ve got your attention joe… the World Trade Center Towers did not melt and fall down.
For God’s sake, man… now they’ve turned the Sabbath into a cash cow.
What’s really crazy is that (collectively)… we’ve let the government get away with as much as we already have. But then… with 500 channels, cell phones, and uncountable other diversions… who’s got time to pay attention to stuff that really matters?
Can anyone verify that MorganStanley Chase ($25 billion bailout) is the parent company of the company that cut the parking meter deal with Daley?
“CEO for Chicago Parking Meters LLC, Dennis Pedrelli” — Is this the same Dennis Pedrelli said to be an Asset Manager at Morgan Stanley (see google)?
For those unaware… MorganStanley Chase recently decided to more than double APRs on existing balances of more than 400,000 of their best customers… for no reason other than they wanted to make more money.
Well… now these same guys have the power (and freedom) to raise the parking meter rates to whatever… whenever… they decide they need to make more money. And you don’t think that’s infringing on your freedom?
Please… PAY ATTENTION
They place a phone number and web address on each parking meter to report problems and the administration is shocked… simply shocked at the number of broken meters! Why this is unacceptable! There are (all of a sudden) too many broken meters! Must be those new guys running the former model of efficiency that was the Chicago parking meter system. Yep, that’s the ticket. Oops, did I just hit on the real reason? Could they want each and every meter working perfectly so they can issue even more tickets? Nah! That can’t be right. I must be paranoid.
Not surprised at the real rationale, but found it interesting that Daley chief of staff Volpe confirmed it’s not about parking management, it’s all about the revenue.
Despite claims of broken meters being unacceptable, responding to the question whether there was any concern about people not using the meters, he essentially said, oh well, we got our money up front, that’s their problem.
If it’s no big deal, what does the city then propose to do with all the space wasted for improperly priced parking?
I may be one of the rare few not upset by a meter rate increase, but the city sold it’s ability to manage street parking in the city for 75 years! Incredibly foolish and short sighted.
When approving my message above, please correct my last name if you will. Thanks.
The great thing about the City of Chicago, I work in the City Hall office.( not going to say which one) but here are a few items not mentioned in the new press.
When the Mayor decided on the winner of the parking meters, many things was already decided.
1. All staff would be moved to a new department and would be given raises to meet the new job description. (per union contract). Which means more paid out pentions, making the city spend more of your (taxpayers) money.
2. When the DOR was told about the lease deal, they decide back in Oct/Nov to stop repairing the meters and let the new company take over and deal with the issues. So, blaming everything on Morgan Stanley, we need to give blame to where is goes and look at the City!!!
3. I also read that the company was said to have taken over in January, that is not so, they recieved signed papers to operate the meters the second week of Febuary, that friday not sure of the date.
4. Morgan Stanley had no involvement with the prices of the meters. It was all the council and mayor that approved the rates now and going forward. They rates where preset before the agreemement.
5. You also, have to remember that this lease deal was not only offered to Morgan Stanley but many other companies bid on this deal. Morgan Stanley happened to come up with the most back bonds and letters of approval for the 1.2 billion.
6. They mayor just needed to make a statement that would make is departement look good. They made Morgan Stanley look bad, but it was the City that created this mass issue.
7. We have to remember that the city is broke and that M.S. did give us 1.2 billion CASH in hand. That money has helped in many ways that I do not think that average citizen understands.
8. I know that there are alot of upset residents in Chicago over this, but fact is there has not been a rate increase in chicago in nearly 18 years and compared to other cities, are still lower than most.
[...] recall, LAZ Parking, allowed to supplement meter ticket enforcement per the new meter lease deal, agreed to suspend their ticket writing until they had substantially improved their performance with the [...]
[...] broken meters, vandalized meters, meters with inconsistent information, etc., the company allegedly “voluntarily” agreed to suspend enforcement until they got their act [...]
[...] right, as we mentioned about three weeks ago, and after being on “voluntary” hiatus since April, due to the tremendous amount of problems related to the parking meter lease deal transition, meter [...]
[...] DOR managers did not want any embarrassing problems due to winter weather, akin to some of the earlier implementation issues back in March, and a mass outage of hundreds of pay boxes located downtown in [...]
[...] managers did not want any embarrassing problems due to winter weather, akin to some of the earlier implementation issues back in March, and a mass outage of hundreds of pay boxes located downtown in [...]