Montclair's Pesky Parking Meters

Outside the Montclair Township's offices on Claremont Avenue, one of the parking meters has been flashing an "out of order" message this week. Residents in other parts of town, too, complain of what they see as a growing number of broken parking meters, especially in the central business district.

But John Teubner, executive director of the Montclair Parking Authority, said it's often Montclair residents who are to blame for chronic breakdowns.

"People are jamming them constantly ... with gum, bent coins, silly string," he said. "It's malicious."

Teubner pointed out that, in a town with 1,700 parking meters, one would be hard pressed not to find a few that were broken. For example, according to his records there are only about a dozen broken meters in the central business district on any given day. "Percentage-wise there just aren't a lot of broken meters," he said.

Teubner added that there were three types of broken meters: those with battery failures, those that have legitimately broken down, and those that aren't broken at all but that people claim are malfunctioning in order to get out of paying. The meters' nine-volt batteries are supposed to last 11 months although, Teubner said, the MPA replaces the batteries every nine months as it doesn't want to "take any chances."

"Those that flash the word 'dead' are the ones with dead batteries and those that flash 'failed' are the ones that have malfunctioned," he said.

Councilor Nick Lewis, who serves on the MPA, said that the authority spends a lot of time and money repairing the meters in Montclair.

"The problem that they face is that individuals are intentionally breaking the meters ... sometimes targeting the same meter more than once in a week," he said. "The MPA fixes the meter and it is broken again."

He said that in the long run parking meters would likely give way to newer technologies such as pay-by-phone services but that, in the interim, "the MPA struggles to keep [the meters] all operating."

Paying for parking using a cell phone is fairly common across Europe and is starting to catch on in cities across the United States as well. In cities such as Albuquerque, New Mexico, for example, motorists are even able to receive text message alerts and reminders 15 minutes before their time is due to expire.

Created in 2002 to build and develop the Crescent Deck, the Montclair Parking Authority took over the care of parking meters from the Township in 2007. Teubner said that the authority was able to funnel $785,000 into Montclair's coffers at the end of last year after taking care of its own operating expenses.

Teubner admitted that MPA revenues are down by about 10 percent to 12 percent in recent months, mostly due to the troubled economy. But he insisted that the authority is still on track to give Montclair a similar amount of money next year.

"Our revenues are down because the economy is down and people aren't going out and parking as much but we've done some cost cutting and so we've offset this as much as possible," he said.

Teubner said the MPA is an entity of only 13 people, only one of whom collects and repairs the meters.

And so is finding a parking space with a broken meter equivalent to hitting the jackpot? Not exactly.

"Supposedly there's an ordinance saying you can't park where there's a broken meter," Teubner said.

Even so, Lewis said it's not clear how rigorously the rule is enforced.

And so is inadvertently putting a coin into a broken meter the same as throwing it away? Again, not exactly.

"I keep loose change on my desk and people can always stop by to get a quarter," Teubner said. "Otherwise it's a six-week process to get a check for the 25 cents you spent."

To report a problem with a broken meter call the Montclair Parking Authority at 973-509-4997 or email John Teubner at jteubner@montclairnjusa.org.