Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/268408
Then Patterson moved to amend the motion to include all the county beaches in the RFP. Mercier seconded it, and it, too, passed 3-2, with Staub again in the majority. Finally — with the same three commissioners in support — the board approved a resolution to implement the Beach Paid Parking Pilot Program, including the establishment of a policy and fee schedule. It called for parking fees for all vehicles without an annual permit to be $2 per hour — or fraction of one hour — with a $10 maximum per day. A Sarasota County resident would pay $30 for an annual permit for the first vehicle registered at a single-family residence or con- dominium or apartment unit; the cost would be $10 for each additional vehicle permit for the same single-family household. Non-residents of the county would pay $75 per vehicle for an annual permit. The pilot program was to go into effect in February 2009. The county expected to raise about $4 million from the fees, according to staff reports. The firm hired to handle the parking would receive 35 percent of the proceeds, and the county would use the rest of the revenue to pay for beach maintenance, operations, cleanup and other related costs. As reporter Stan Zimmerman wrote in the Pelican Press, the County Commission was scheduled to start its budget deliberations the following month, and it was facing a $38 mil- lion shortfall. Less than two weeks later, on May 27, 2008, during the Commission Reports part of the meeting, Patterson made a motion to direct "the County Administrator to withdraw the authorization for the [RFP] relative to the Beach Paid Parking Pilot Program," accord- ing to the minutes. Thaxton seconded the motion, which carried by a 5-0 vote. As Zimmerman wrote in his subsequent Pelican Press article, the commissioners had received more than 100 emails protesting the paid parking plan. During that May 27, 2008 meeting, Patterson told her colleagues, "I saw this morning that Commissioner Staub … has sent out one email, and I assume more will follow, telling people that she no longer supports paying for beach parking. I think if that is the case, we shouldn't burden people with having to do an RFP when there are already three votes not to do it." Commissioner Nora Patterson has been an advocate of paid parking at county beaches. Photo by Norman Schimmel Sarasota News Leader February 28, 2014 Page 12