A second resolution recently approved by Wilmington City Council requesting the city hire an outside firm to comprehensively study the city’s parking needs appears to be rendered useless as Mayor Mike Purzycki’s administration now says they’re doing their own review.
Purzycki’s deputy chief of staff John Rago said in an emailed response to Delaware Online/The News Journal questions that Wilmington’s administration decided in “late 2023 that a parking study could be helpful for future parking needs” and in early 2024, engaged an existing contractor, Maryland-based RK&K, to assist with these efforts.
Rago pointed to the 2025 priorities for the Department of Public Works, which included doing a “comprehensive study” of on-street parking and EV charger placement.
However, the latest revelation comes as a surprise to City Council members who say they never received details about the study. The council resolution also comes roughly two months after the legislative body unanimously passed another resolution calling for Wilmington to audit its parking, towing and booting practices.
At that time, Rago denied there being a need to audit the city’s practices, pointing to the “financial and operational audits” that are conducted as part of Wilmington’s “normal review.” During that April interview with Delaware Online, Rago did not mention the city’s efforts to study Wilmington’s parking needs.
Council members were informed in March about the planned parking study, Rago said.
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At-large Councilperson James Spadola, who sponsored the latest resolution unanimously approved by the City Council on June 20, pushed back against those claims in an interview with Delaware Online/The News Journal Monday.
“You can listen to the full committee and council meeting and at no time does the administration say anything or provide anything in writing about the parking study in terms of the scope, vendor, cost,” he said. “Whatever Rago is working on is news to me and news to everybody on Council.”
Neither the June 20 regular meeting of the City Council nor the May 20 Public Works & Transportation Committee meeting where Spadola’s resolution was debated mentioned the administration’s parking study efforts.
What’s involved in Wilmington’s parking study?
Wilmington struck an agreement with RK&K in May to review on-street, limited-period parking in the city, beginning with the Midtown Brandywine Central District, according to the scope of services drafted and provided to Delaware Online/The News Journal by Rago.
The Maryland-based firm provides the public and private sector with “multi-discipline planning, engineering, environmental and construction phase services.”
The study will include gathering background on the city’s existing and future land use, public parking facilities, ParkMobile zones and parking meter locations, existing and future EV charging stations, existing timed parking zones and residential parking permit zones. From this information, RK&K intends to recommend both short- and long-term changes.
Because Wilmington already contracts with RK&K, the city didn’t have to go out to bid, Rago said. The parking study will cost about $65,000, he said.
The city anticipates receiving preliminary findings from the study in the fall, which Rago said would prompt public notice as Wilmington seeks input from residents on the findings.
Why council members continue to push for review
When the City Council in April approved a resolution calling for Wilmington to audit its parking, towing and booting practices, city lawmakers acknowledged it was a largely symbolic gesture likely to go nowhere.
Even today, Rago contends Wilmington doesn’t need to audit these processes. He underscored that a study and audit are not the same thing, which Spadola also emphasized with the latest resolution.
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Spadola said his resolution, approved in an 11-0 vote with two council members absent, was more future-focused, aimed at having a consultant explore what Wilmington could be doing better, complete with examples from other cities.
“This parking study is proactive,” the councilmember said. “Let’s not wait to hear about problems.”
Many Wilmington City Council members have been looped into constituents’ parking issues, receiving calls for assistance or out of pure frustration. In turn, city lawmakers have proposed legislation and pushed efforts to reform Wilmington’s parking enforcement practices. While some, like an increase in the threshold for someone’s car to be booted and towed over unpaid parking tickets, haven’t received pushback from Purzycki’s administration, others – like auditing its practices and policies – have.
“We have some neighborhoods that want weekend enforcement, and we have some neighborhoods that don’t,” Spadola said in a news release. “The aim is to have a strategic plan that will improve parking accessibility, efficiency, and convenience for our residents and visitors.”
While Wilmington officials point to annual reports on parking enforcement operations and finances as evidence that auditing is unnecessary, these reports – which are presumably public – are not available on the city’s website.
The last time the city conducted an audit of its parking practices was in 2020, specifically focused on parking meters in Wilmington.
City Auditor Terence Williams issued a scathing report in September 2020, finding that Wilmington required “significant improvement” on its cash control, contract management and administration, payment processing, policies and procedures, reconciliation, strategic operations and user access.
In response to that audit, management indicated they addressed all the findings by June 2021.
What does this mean for the lawsuit settlement?
A tentative settlement agreement in the federal lawsuit against Wilmington over its towing practices was reached a day after the City Council approved the latest resolution calling for a study of Wilmington’s parking needs.
A letter filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware by city attorneys said the settlement “will include modifications to procedures for towing and impoundment of vehicles” in Wilmington, some of which require lawmakers to amend the City Code.
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But Purzycki’s administration has yet to engage with council members on the matter, Wilmington lawmakers said.
And when asked whether city officials have spoken with the City Council about impending policy changes, Rago responded by stating, “The parking study is not related to the lawsuit,” ignoring the questions at hand.
U.S. District Chief Judge Colm Connolly, who has presided over the case since it was filed in 2021, has given the parties six months to finalize the settlement. Otherwise, it will go to trial next year.
Got a tip? Contact Amanda Fries at afries@delawareonline.com. Follow her on X at @mandy_fries.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: How Wilmington is quietly studying parking needs throughout the city
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