Clarksville is holding a listening session about parking — but they didn’t invite anyone to attend

Just before 4 p.m. Monday, the City of Clarksville quietly added a meeting to the events calendar for Tuesday at 5 p.m. — a “listening session” where they want to hear input from the public about the downtown parking options, except they didn’t tell anyone. In fact, at least one parking commission member was caught off-guard about the timing, as it happens at the same time the Mayor and one commission member have to be inside the City Council chambers for their own meeting.

So on Tuesday, at 5 p.m. the Mayor’s Parking commission will hold a listening session to decide the public’s input on parking, but the Mayor nor some of the commission will be in attendance, and they hope you won’t either, because they made no formal notice or announcement, despite promises from Parking Director Michael Palmore there would be a public outreach campaign to notify the public of the meeting, as he stated during a conversation last week when discussing the listening session.

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Clarksville Parking Commissioner asks reporter to stop recording public meeting during controversial topic

During last week’s meeting of the City of Clarksville Parking Commission, Commission member Andrea Herrera asked a reporter to stop recording a portion of the public meeting, in violation of the state’s open meeting act, which allows for all portions of a meeting to be viewed, accessed, and recorded as a matter of public record. Herrera also asked for a special parking exception to be made for one of her employees, which seems to be a direct conflict of interest to her new role, and was visibly upset when the other commissioners didn’t necessarily accommodate her.

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Addition of ParkMobile app allows almost-free downtown parking — The city’s new nightmare

Thanks to the addition of the ParkMobile app to the existing parking meter infrastructure, and the fact that the two systems can’t communicate – you can park downtown in a metered space for as little as $2 for the entire day — and there’s nothing the city can do to stop it without removing either “1st-hour free parking” or getting rid of the ParkMobile app. Here’s how… and you never even have to leave your office, workplace, or downtown home, thanks to the app.

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City says it will accept & keep payments made during free parking times; won’t disable app

In response to an inquiry from Clarksville Today, Clarksville Parking Manager Michael Palmore says the city will not disable the new ParkMobile app (which is now used to pay for downtown parking) during city regulated ‘free parking’ hours on evenings, nights, and weekends. Palmore stated he doesn’t want visitors to “get comfortable with free parking” and if they pay during “free parking time” without knowing the rules, the city will simply pocket the money.

Palmore added that “anyone who has paid [on nights/weekends] is probably a visitor”. There are no clear signs posted about free parking on nights/weekends when using the new app, and it sends reminders during free periods that payment is required.

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Clarksville Police will no longer tow vehicles for parking violations, despite $500K in unpaid fines

In a recent City of Clarksville Parking Commission meeting, it was revealed that the Clarksville Police Police Department is now refusing tow requests from the city’s parking enforcement officers. This, combined with the city’s fear to take on the liability for booting illegally parked vehicles, will continue to add to the over $500,000 of unpaid fines, and lack of downtown parking availability, as people know they can park all day without paying the meter, without any penalty or enforcement.

The city currently has no viable way to collect unpaid tickets or enforce the laws on vehicles. The city has stopped projecting unpaid fines as potential revenue until it’s collected since so little of it is ever paid.

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