During the spring semester they march with sweat drenched shirts and farmer tan lines. In fall they don knit caps and have chapped lips. From the early hours of the day to just after sunset, the half-dozen parking assistants roam the parking lots of the University of Memphis, which span more than 9,200 spaces.
While they check hanging parking permits, coin-operated meters and print tickets for violators, using a mobile brick shaped devices they haul everywhere, many students and some faculty glare at them.
In exchange for the work and becoming despised by many at the University, a full-time parking assistant may have a sole less pair of sneakers and earn about $17,500, by the end of a fiscal year.
But that same wage worker could bring in nearly $92,000 in ticket money for the U of M’s Parking and Transportation Services.
In fact, parking services collects on average $440,000 a year in tickets, according to records spanning six years obtained by The Daily Helmsman.
This amount is made up from a variety of citations ranging from $10 for an improperly displayed parking permit to $200 for those who block or park in a handicap spot.
One of the most common tickets written is for parking “on the grass,” a $15 fine for when students park on the grounds between the Zach Curlin parking lots, explained a former parking assistant who asked not to be named due to an agreement made not to speak to the media.
Despite all of the miles walked, the former assistant and student said, there were no bonuses given for handing out more tickets and the job wasn’t difficult.
“It sucked that some students got tickets, but they were getting them for a reason,” the former assistant said. “I’d gotten tickets myself. In retrospect, I know I deserved them.”
But not all citations are handed out justly. Nearly two-thirds of all tickets brought before the Parking and Traffic Standing Committee were successfully appealed, during the last three years. Only 28 percent of ticket appeals were denied, and nearly 8 percent saw fines reduced or had the citations completely removed, pending some additional action from the defendant.
Even though Parking and Transportation Services is as an auxiliary to the University—which means although they are a part of the school, they must generate their own money for all projects and salaries—the U of M acts as a collection agency for the department.
Students who do not pay their parking tickets are not allowed to register for classes. The University will even prevent students from accessing their grades and records unless parking citations are paid.
For faculty and staff, ticket money is automatically taken out of their paychecks if they don’t pay the ticket in a timely fashion.
While parking services has brought in more than $2.6 million in tickets over the last six years, citations represent only 13 percent of their annual revenue. Their primary moneymaker comes from selling general parking permits, which students are required to purchase.
In fall 2013 and spring 2014, student parking permit fees generated a little more than $1.4 million for parking services.
These permits cost $7 per class, but cap off at $42. Every student, with the exception of those attending the law school, is required to buy one—even online only students who generally do not come to the Memphis campus.
Last year there were more than 2,000 online only students who paid for these permits.
Though many students may not like these fees, they are necessary to maintain the parking lots, explained Angela Floyd, the director of Parking and Transportation Services.
During Floyd’s more than 10 years at parking services, she has moved up from parking assistant to the director. She also met her husband, who was also an assistant, and has one child. Since Floyd became director, the department has never once gone into the red.
“(Parking and Transportation Services) pays for the lights in the parking lots, the landscaping around the lots, our own internet and utilities,” Floyd said. “We get no money from the University or from the state. We are completely self-funded.”
Operating parking services at the U of M costs on average $1.58 million, according to records spanning six years. However, parking’s expenditures exceeded $2.3 million in 2013, according to records obtained by The Daily Helmsman.
Half of those costs went toward maintenance, repairs and “professional/administrative services.” Nearly 30 percent of it went toward salaries and employee benefits.
Despite 2013’s higher than average expenditures, the department still pulled in $1.4 million in excess revenue—money remaining after the cost of operations. This was below the 10 year average of $1.7 million a year, according to records The Daily Helmsman acquired.
Excess revenue is split into two accounts. Up to $850,000 goes toward paying off debts that Parking Services has incurred, a “Retirement of Indebtedness” account. The remaining money not used to pay off state debts is transferred into a “Renewals and Replacement” account.
“This account helps expand lots and cover the Blue Line,” Floyd said.
Renovations to the Central Avenue parking lot cost $2.5 million. All of it was paid for by money pulled from the renewals and replacement account, The Daily Helmsman reported in 2011.
“I’ve been a student here, too,” Floyd said. “Back then we didn’t have Zach Curlin (garage). I got tickets. I joined parking services (in the late 90s) and was writing tickets while I was a student. I know it from every perspective.”
A Daily Helmsman Investigation by Jonathan A Capriel
