City Council

27 WEST ALLEN STREET WINOOSKI, VERMONT 05404 (802) 655-6410 CITY OF WINOOSKI (802) 655-6414 (fax) KATHERINE R. DECARREAU CITY MANAGER MAYOR SETH LEONARD COUNCILOR NICOLE MACE sleonard@winooskivt.org DEPUTY MAYOR BRIAN CORRIGAN CITY COUNCIL COUNCILOR ROBERT MILLAR COUNCILOR BRIAN SWEENEY bcorrigan@winooskivt.org Agenda Friday, May 6, 2016 9:30 A.M. Claire Burke Council Chambers I. Call To Order II. Pledge of Allegiance III. Regular Items: a. Approval: Free Parking – Waking Windows Weekend May 6 – 8 – S Leonard VIII. Adjourn MINUTES The meeting was called to order by the Mayor at 9:30 a.m. The meeting began with the Pledge of allegiance led by Deputy Mayor Corrigan. Members Present: Mayor Seth Leonard Councilors: Brian Corrigan, Brian Sweeney, Nicole Mace, Robert Millar Officers Present: Katherine Decarreau, City Manager; Carol Barrett, City Clerk; Rick Hebert, Police Chief; John Audy, Code Enforcement Director; Ray Coffey, Community Services Director. Others Present: Lance McKee, McKee’s Pub; Ryan Smith, Monkey House; Laura Wade, Misery Loves Co. III. Regular Items: a. Approval: Free Parking – Waking Windows Weekend May 6-8. The Mayor said we are here for reconsideration of free parking for Waking Windows weekend. The Mayor reiterated what we discussed last time. The concerns raised were about this not having a long standing policy. Other concerns were also raised about how we will support financially events like this in the future and the amount of staff times that is going towards that. We also considered this request in the context of the legislative deciding to retain our taxation which they did on the parking garage for $140,000.00 a year, which put our garage at $140,000.00 deficit. The decision made at that time was to not extend the free parking for the weekend. This request has been brought back and is open for consideration today. There are functional concerns about paid parking. The City Manager said there are serious administrative challenges to having two machine and 5000 people. The Mayor thinks there was an assumption on behalf of the organization that free parking would be the case and with that came statements to volunteers, statements to the public website presence indicated free parking. Two main reasons we are back here. May 6, 2016 Minutes Winooski City Council Councilor Millar I’m going to support this mainly because of the promises that were put out before we had a chance to vote on it. I think we need to come back and put some serious work into this. I think we set a calendar and approve it for one year. Free parking days should be treated similar to an event permit with a simple form. The permit should have staff approval with it. I think this gives us a starting point because on Monday we had no guidance, justification or sign off from staff saying why this is appropriate. I think it’s worth exploring to see if we could charge for that. I’m concerned on how we got here to change or vote on something and to have a special meeting. The Mayor said I think there is wide spread knowledge that we went through on Monday and we have a lot of work to do on event policies and permitting. Councilor Mace said there are points that need to be made in light of that we are being asked to reconsider a decision that we made on the basis of information that we had available to us at the time. I have received several communications from folks indicating that the City is trying to reap some kind of profit off of this by charging for parking. With an event of this size it cost the city, but the fact that we have full-time employees being asked to work over the weekend and I’m sure we are increasing the Police presence which comes as a cost and strain in public resources. I’m not going to change my vote and visitors to the city should have to pay for parking. This is not all about reaping financial profit. Councilor Corrigan said he received several emails from people most of which were vendor oriented, baring in mind I agree with Robert and Nicole are saying. Councilor Millar said we need to remember that paid parking is first and foremost not money making scheme it is a management tool to keep those spaces circulating. I want to make it clear that I’m changing my vote on this particular one. I won’t ever support free parking day again without a good process. Councilor Sweeney said he supported this from the beginning. He said we have challenges in downtown parking. If we can do one thing is to encourage people to use the garage which is severely under utilized. I fully support free parking for Waking Windows. The Mayor said he also supports the free parking. I think it’s really a sad perception to think that we are reaping the benefits of parking. We have to also solve the way we are handling these events. The City Manager said to the degree that I or anybody on my staff contributed to the perception that this would move forward, I apologize. It was not anybody’s intention, but I can certainly understand on how that could have happened. I’m going to own that personally. I want to say I totally appreciate the folks from Waking Windows and this is a learning curve for everybody. Councilor Sweeney said he received an email from Sarah Sears and stated the Kelsea was speaking from a personal stand point and the WCP supports free parking. Lance McKee, Laura Wade and Ryan Smith thanked the Councilor for meeting today. Mr. McKee said we need to get the vibe back into Winooski. Mr. Smith said he supports paid parking in the downtown and apologize for any confusion on their end. Ms. Wade said we had an interested and tough winter. The way that Waking Windows has conducted the process has been amazing and should set the bar for other events. The Mayor said it’s unfortunate that we are sitting here and we will fix it. Councilor Mace said it seems to me we need to be very clear that the expectation should not be because the vote changes today that free parking is in the mix moving forward. We can get our process in place for future events. The City Manager said we are learning the technology we will have to have an additional piece of technology that going to have to be here. MOTION by Councilor Sweeney seconded by Councilor Millar to approve free parking for Waking Windows Festival which is May 6 – 8, 2016. Voted and passed 4-1 Councilor Mace voted no. ATTEST:___________________________ City Clerk May 6, 2016 Minutes Winooski City Council