Tuesday, November 11, 2025
The City of Olympia’s Public Works Department is proposing a 25-30% increase in parking citation fees, citing rising operational costs and the need to maintain effective parking management.
According to Deputy Public Works Director Thanh Jeffers, the proposed adjustment would be the first since March 2020. It aims to keep pace with inflation, which has risen at a rate of 4.8-5% annually over the past five years.
Jeffers told the Olympia Finance Committee at a meeting on Monday, Oct. 20, that the city's current citation fees are among the lowest in the region. She said the Olympia Parking Services Program has operated without fee increases for the past five years despite higher costs for staffing, technology and maintenance.
“Our operation costs are now outpacing our revenue. Adjusting our citation fee will help restore the balance and support the long-term sustainability of the program,” Jeffers said.
The Parking Services Program transitioned to Public Works from the Community Planning and Development Department in January 2025.
The program oversees the operation of enforcement of metered parking, residential permit zones, time-limited areas and several city-owned lots. It also manages citation processing, customer service and community education on parking regulations.
Jeffers pointed out that low citation fees limit the city’s ability to deter repeat parking violations and sustain program operations. The proposed fee increase aims to ensure Olympia’s parking system remains “fair, effective, and financially stable," she said.
Jeffers emphasized the goal is to support a safe, accessible and well-managed downtown, while reducing the city’s reliance on its general fund.
If approved, the citation fee increase would generate a surplus of about $16,000 after covering operational costs. Jeffers said this would help the program maintain its technology and equipment.
The proposed budget includes $2,115,959 in operating expenses, with projected revenue of $2,131,958 under the new rates.
Finance Committee Chair Clark Gilman said a 25-30% increase is a “tough pill to swallow.” He is one of three city council members who serve on the committee.
He said it is important for residents to understand that parking management is not a profit-driven function.
“People have a perception that it generates money for the general fund every quarter you put in the meter, but it actually costs money to administer parking and time. (The increase) is a break even budget for the program," Gilman said.
Council member Kelly Green, who also serves on the finance committee, raised questions about the reliability of the city’s PayByPhone app and parking meters, citing reports of payment difficulties from some users.
Jeffers confirmed there were recent issues caused by an unannounced nationwide system update by PayByPhone, which temporarily disrupted service for about two weeks.
“We were frantically working on a solution. We released a statement through our Instagram and Facebook page letting the people know the issue was not with their phones,” Jeffers said.
Public works is seeking reimbursement from PayByPhone for the revenue lost during the outage.
Council member Jim Cooper also criticized the advertising in the app.
“I have a big problem with the parking app advertising to me every single time I pay my parking tax," said Cooper, who also serves on the finance committee.
Gilman added he would like to see an option for users to pay a slightly higher transaction fee to avoid in-app ads.
Replying to Cooper’s query on potential rate adjustments beyond citations, Jeffers said there are plans to conduct a comprehensive rate study in the future before making broader changes, such as expanding enforcement to weekends or raising meter rates.
“This time, we only asked for a citation (increase) because we wanted a positive change in the behavior. We want people to voluntarily pay the parking fee so that they don’t get a citation,” Jeffers said.
The finance committee forwarded the proposed parking fee increase to the city council for further consideration.
14 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
HappyOlympian
Old saying - don't park illegally and you won't get a ticket. Whack 'em hard! At night people park anywhere, yellow curbs mean "reserved for the arrogant", some enforcement on Friday/Saturday nights would make the city some serious bank.
Thursday, October 30 Report this
Shushu
Another reason not to go to Olympia. Good luck retail and restaurants.
Thursday, October 30 Report this
MikePelly
Please city stop strangling your downtown merchants businesses. Go back to free 90 minute parking and make shopping in downtown Olympia friendly again. Where else anywhere in Thurston county are there parking meters? Certainly not any malls or strip malls. What makes the city feel like you are such a special place?
Thursday, October 30 Report this
TheVirtualOne
This is what happens when you get people running government who are clueless about how the economy works. For a city of its size, Olympia should not be charging anyone for parking and definitely should not be writing parking tickets. I used to enjoy driving downtown to patronize businesses there. No more. I don’t like being accosted by street people or paying anything to park. There are other businesses I go to elsewhere that are less hassle and do not charge for parking. The people at the City don’t understand how much they are damaging businesses downtown by charging for parking and writing tickets.
Friday, October 31 Report this
anothername
I am not a fan of paying for parking downtown. It is even worse when the meters don't work. It is even worse when you are getting your hair done or a tattoo that takes more than 2 hours.
Friday, October 31 Report this
OlyBlues
Nowhere else in Thurston county is there metered parking but the elite city council believes their special downtown that is riddled by homeless, crime, filth, and urine is so special that one must pay to park there. The city's woke policies that invite and encourage social disorder and crime and then charge you for the privilege to park there are out of touch with reality. Good luck raising these fees and good luck to the businesses that will suffer as a result! I never go downtown and this is just another reason why to avoid it.
Friday, October 31 Report this
Oly_ishome
Pull the meters, Olympia is just not big enough to justify paid parking in an environment where downtown businesses are struggling and vacancies are high. Clear the operating cost from your budget, sign a contract to monitor and impound the overnight stays - passing the oversight costs to the impound company. Wasn’t there just a bunch of $$ spent last year on evaluating metered, timed parking zones and fees? And now they are talking about another comprehensive study?! How much time is finance committee wasting on what Gilman calls a “break-even” budget line item that hurts downtown merchants & merchant employees? Anyone recall the recent story on the rental registry program also not covering its own costs? I’d like some transparency on just how many of these failed budget line items there really are.
Friday, October 31 Report this
TheGreatAnon
I was living downtown when 90 minute free parking was ended at the request of the Olympia Downtown Association. Their issue was chain parking which is moving your car every 90 minutes or so to get free parking w/out being ticketed. Turned out the majority of the chain parkers were business owners & their employees. The obvious solution would have been not hogging the parking spaces in front of your business as well as telling your they'd be fired if they did so, but no the City stood up a variety of programs that shifted costs to folk trying to spend money downtown. While the tickets aren't that much unpaid tickets put a hold on renewing your tabs as well at dinging your credit rating.
I say bring back the 90 minute system, 1st ticket forgiveness followed by steep fines
Friday, October 31 Report this
NihiledIt
What's frustrating about all this is that parking services works to *support* businesses and customers by limiting the overuse of high demand parking spaces. Unregulated parking leads to unavailable parking.
Of course, people want it regulated, but they also want it free. And by free, they mean government-subsidized. When will we recognize that services we benefit from cost money and stop expecting "someone else" to pay?
Side note, are they increasing fees (permits, meters, etc,) or fines (citations), or both?
Friday, October 31 Report this
DalePutnam
Nowhere in the article did I see anything about how much the current fees are, or what they are moving to. Shouldn't this information be included in the article?
Friday, October 31 Report this
DudeInOlympia
@DalePutnam - my parking ticket for a work truck 2 years ago was $15
Friday, October 31 Report this
KinesthesiaAmnesia
A few weeks ago I was shopping at Archibald Sisters downtown for a few minutes. Didn’t have a phone that would run the parking payment app. Parked in two different spots that had broken meters, but I couldn’t tell they were broken until after I got out to pay. The city needs to do a better job of finding and fixing their broken meters! If they have enforcement looking for parking violations, wouldn’t they also notice their own broken meters?!
Friday, October 31 Report this
HappyOlympian
Got to agree with some many here, the 75 cents for an hour and 15 minutes sending me to the poor house. Wow, folks, no fee means no available spots as the residents in the area would occupy everything. No citations means arrogant folks do whatever they like making downtown a parking/driving nightmare. Free parking means no turnover.
Friday, October 31 Report this
MichaelNW
Do I have to pay when I go to shop at a mall or anywhere outside the downtown area? Parking meters are the death of downtowns. Get rid of them and downtown Olympia will come alive.
Friday, October 31 Report this