City of Tulsa Not Replacing Dead Parking Meter Batteries

By Emory Bryan, The News on 6

TULSA, OK -- The City of Tulsa has state of the art parking meters, but one-third of them are inoperable because the city of Tulsa hasn't replaced the batteries that run them.

The manager in charge of buying batteries says he's asked for the money in the budget, without success. His supervisor says if the city buys batteries, it will come at the cost of something even more critical, guard rails and other safety equipment for city streets.

The city purchased new, more durable, battery powered parking meters to replace mechanical models that required regular winding and were often vandalized.

City of Tulsa Traffic Engineer Mark Brown said from 2000 - 2003, more than 800 of the old parking meters were vandalized. In 2003, new "Rhino" brand multi-space meters were purchased, though not installed because of pending sidewalk repairs under the Vision 2025 program.

5/15/2008 Related story: Meter Man Keeping Busy

The "Rhino" meters are more durable, but use batteries that cost $90 each and last 4 months. For the meters that accept credit cards, the city also pays a monthly fee to process the transactions.

"We've been severely underfunded as we've deployed these Rhino meters," Brown said.

Brown said this year he asked for $43,000 in the budget for batteries, but didn't get it.

"If we don't have the money to put a battery in, we've got a problem," said Councilor Roscoe Turner.

"This makes us look stupid," said Councilor Bill Christiansen.

The City has 91 multi-space meters. Fifty-four of them are operational, and 37 are not because the batteries are dead.

Brown said the city contract with the company contains a provision that allows the city to pay $200 per meter, per year, regardless of how many batteries it takes. He said the city does not take advantage of that offer.

Brown said the company that makes the meter is developing a solar power source, and has lowered the cost of batteries to compensate for a design flaw that makes the meter use batteries faster than it should.

Several City Councilors thought the money collected in parking meters should be directed into the budget for batteries, but Public Works Director Charles Hardt said that's difficult to do with the way the City budget works.

"It doesn't automatically get allocated to the things that generate that money. This is a horrible problem associated with running a department," said Hardt. "Inadequate resources is either I cut the supplies or the people who put the supplies in. There is no choice we have in how to get more money."

The City Council did not make decisions on the issue Tuesday, but plans more discussion and possible changes in the budget to pay for new batteries.