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Senate grills administrators about parking garage fees
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Questions about the new parking garage and a warning of neighborhood discontent with parking on adjacent residential streets dominated the ASBSU Senate meeting Thursday.
John Franden, executive assistant to BSU President Charles Ruch, and Bob Seibolt, director of campus safety, told the Senate that in an effort to offer the campus community better access and opportunity for comment, the Parking and Transportation Committee would begin meeting in the Forum room of the Student Union Building beginning Monday, Sept. 18.
“I don’t understand why we can split the atom but we can’t differentiate between students and visitors at the parking garage,” said Sen. Derreck Woodbury.
Franden offered the senators a simple answer: The $20,000-apiece fee collection machines do not have the software necessary to do the task. And machines that can are not available, he added.
“The solution of parking attendants at the parking garage is not cost-effective,” Franden said.
Franden told the Senate, “There’s always a place to park; our problem is where you have to park.”
“By 8 a.m. the Morrison Center side of campus is full,” said Siebolt, while the Stadium side has ample parking.
“It’s a personal choice to use the parking garage,” Siebolt said.
Regarding the parking fee structure, Sen. Jenni Plewa told Franden and Siebolt, “I haven’t met a single student that thinks this is a good idea.”
Franden throughout the meeting reiterated, “If you have a solution better than what we have now, please submit it to the Parking and Transportation Committee.”
Franden warned the senators that the Boise Police Department estimate 1,000 cars are parking on the streets adjacent to campus. If the Southeast Neighborhood Association requests it, a special parking district similar to that which surrounds Boise High School may be created by the city. Such an action would create an additional stress on the availability of on campus parking.
Siebolt told the Senate, 90 percent of the transactions at the parking garage were for one hour and 15 minutes. He added, more than 1,200 cars were utilizing the parking garage, paying approximately $1,500 in fees daily.
Sen. Mike Klinkhamer questioned “the double indemnity of students paying the same parking fee as the general public when student fees were being used to pay for the garage.”
Franden responded, “The parking garage is financed by bonds which are paid for by $10 per semester of student fees.”
“No increase in student fees has occurred, just a restructuring of bonds,” Seibolt added.
Every semester approximately 350 additional cars come to campus, which means the university needs an additional four or five parking garages. And parking is totally self-supporting, with no state money made available. There has been no free parking on campus for two years, Franden said..
All student parking permits are priced $20 less than faculty and staff permits to offset the student parking fees, according to Franden.
“We still don’t know exactly how much money the garage is going to make. This is an experiment in capitalism,” Franden explained. Pay-as-you go parking is the method for paying the bonds and financing the next garage.
The last student parking fee increase occurred in 1994, according to Siebolt. Two years ago, employee parking fees were increased, but not student fees.
Both former ASBSU presidents Christine Starr and Matt Bott were involved in the parking garage financing decision, Franden said.
Additionally, unanimous support came from last year’s Senate to a rate of $1 per hour for the public and 50 cents per hour for students. However, the estimate from vendors was $100,000 to write a software program that could accomplish that task, Franden said. Because every vendor in the United States and Canada “told us that technology did not exist, that’s not cost-effective,” he said.
Sen. Klinkhamer questioned the surplus in the parking budget of an estimated $160,000.
Franden acknowledged the surplus and the university’s desire to grow that surplus. However, he said, “No good business would exist without some cash for growth.”
John Threet (The Arbiter)