City negotiates to sell defunct parking meters

For sale: parking meters. Top-of-the-line technology. Gently used (less than 365 days) and in good condition. Being sold for a fraction of the original cost.

The city of Sarasota might post an advertisement similar to this if it were to sell the parking meters that now sit unused at the police department.

But, the city will not be selling the meters directly.

City Parking Manager Mark Lyons said negotiations are under way with Milwaukee-based Duncan Solutions, the meter manufacturer that sold the pay stations to the city for $10,000 apiece. If a consignment agreement is reached with Duncan Solutions, it would sell the pay stations on the parking market, and the city of Sarasota would receive a portion of the sale, $1,000 for each unit sold.

“We’re still working on an agreement with the manufacturer,” Lyons said. “We are still in negotiations. It’s looking favorable.”

Lyons said Duncan would have better luck selling the meters because it has more access to the market of possible buyers.

The city removed the meters in March after they were in place for less than one year; they were originally installed in April 2011.

Those meters, 47 machines in total, are now resting securely, in rows of four, the meters facing back-to-front, under the stairwell at the police department.

The city paid $470,000 for the meters and could receive $47,000 if all of them are sold.

“We tried to get the highest dollar amount we could,” Lyons said.

The city could not return the meters for a full refund because the contract didn’t include a buy-back clause.

As a next step, the city’s parking department, with input from a committee of residents and merchants, is drafting a strategic parking plan that would determine hours of enforcement and whether additional spaces should be added at various downtown districts. The plan could appear before city commissioners within six months.