OCEAN CITY – Officials say they are in the process of hiring staff for the town’s new parking division.
Transit Manager Rob Shearman told members of the Ocean City Transportation Committee Tuesday that the formation of a new parking division was well underway. With the council’s approval, officials have created new job descriptions and pay grading and have started the process of seeking a parking manager to oversee operations.
“I want you to realize the advertisement and job description we put together is not just specific to the Inlet lot or the multi-space meters,” said Public Works Director Hal Adkins. “Anything related to parking will go under this individual’s job description. Whether it is the Caine Keys II residential parking permits or whether it is monitoring and troubleshooting and EV program throughout the town, if it is parking related it is ending up with this person.”
In November, the Ocean City Council voted 6-1, with Councilman John Gehrig opposed, to create a new parking division under the town’s transportation department. While paid parking represents a $6 million annual revenue source for the town, officials argued a division was needed to oversee its management.
“What we’d like to do is move virtually everything under that division,” City Manager Terry McGean told the council at the time. “So that division would handle overall administration and management. Right now, no one does that.”
As proposed, the new parking division would fall under Shearman’s leadership and would feature a new full-time parking manager and seven or eight part-time parking enforcement officers. In an update Tuesday, Shearman said advertisement for the parking manager position has attracted more than 20 applicants.
“We do have several promising candidates in that pool, and we are continuing to advertise for that position,” he explained.
Shearman added that the department is also finalizing its office plans and reconfiguring its current budget to account for new parking division expenses between now and July.
When asked about the timeline for hiring, Shearman said the plan was to have a manager by April 1 and enforcement officers by May 1.
“Keep in mind, the season goes into effect April 1,” Adkins said of the parking manager position. “We need to bring in someone substantially before that. That’s what we’re trying to do, so they can educate themselves and we can educate them so they can hit the ground running.”
When asked about enforcement positions, Shearman said the department planned to hire between seven or eight enforcement officers.
“That’s important,” Mayor Rick Meehan said. “If we don’t have that personnel, we don’t have that enforcement.”
