Wolf Howls at Talk of Parking Fees

County Supervisor Janet Wolf expressed keen vexation that a controversial proposal she thought the supervisors had unequivocally killed two weeks ago-charging a $4 daily parking fee to visitors at all county parks and beaches-had been brought back for their consideration the following week. “This flies in the face of board protocol,” Wolf charged. “I believed we took care of this matter on May 6 and it came back on the 13th.” She also expressed concern that there was nothing on the May 13 agenda to notify members of the public that the matter would return for consideration. County Executive Mike Brown has long considered such parking fees could generate $3.4 million a year and placed the issue on the May 6 agenda as for discussion, but Wolf led a successful charge to have the issue yanked before any discussion could take place. At the the May 13 supervisors’ meeting, Brown reinserted the matter onto an agenda item focusing on various solutions to the county’s $25 million budget shortfall. Nothing was in the May 13 supervisors’ agenda to indicate such fees were up for consideration, but it was included in an attachment listing several options. On that list, Brown noted that the supervisors had rejected park and beach parking fees. Wolf argued that the back-door manner in which the issue was reintroduced called into question the integrity and transparency of the county’s process and suggested some procedural reforms might be in order.