It began as a complaint alleging a public official used his position to provide free parking Downtown.
But the review of the Office of Public Parking instead showed an agency that wasn’t following procedures and was inconsistent in billing — in one case not collecting $45,000 from a company for parking services.
The findings were included in the first published report by the Office of Inspector General, which was established last year to investigate and highlight city waste, fraud and abuse.
The Inspector General’s review issued Monday also showed inconsistent billing, including not invoicing EverBank Center about $45,000 for Downtown parking services since September.
A representative said the management company wouldn’t pay without being invoiced, which hadn’t happened as of March 20 when he was interviewed by the Inspector General’s Office.
The report also shows issues with the department not processing rental car agencies’ declarations of nonliability and penalty disputes for citations as far back as November 2013.
A year’s worth of citation review, 37 in all, showed in excess of $2,000 in fees and revenue not collected.
Overall, the report suggests corrective actions of invoicing EverBank Center and established written procedures in several areas across the department.
Ted Carter, Office of Economic Development executive director, said in a statement he appreciated the inspector general’s report and his office already has made multiple improvements based on the report.
Those include upgrading billing software, working with the Downtown Investment Authority on special event parking and training Jack Shad, the city’s public parking officer, and other employees.
In an April 9 letter to Steckler, Carter said the department sent an invoice April 2 to collect the $45,000 and that written procedures are being developed for monthly parking card audits.
The review originated when someone filed a complaint in February that said Shad allowed free parking at the Main Library garage for the mass same-sex wedding ceremony Jan. 10 in Hemming Park.
The complaint was supported by Facebook postings of Shad’s wife being involved with the free parking; the city opening the garage earlier than normal without the minimum special rate of $5 not being issues; and disparity between which events have free parking.
Shad said he set a special flat rate of $250 for the Hemming Park event, though he has not presented that rate to the DIA or City Council for approval, according to the report.
Instead, Shad said, the concept was a work in progress and there are no written policies to address when to apply the rate.
The public parking office, which falls under Carter’s office, is allowed to present proposed parking rates for Downtown, but has to do so to the DIA.
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