On November 15, 2024, The South Carolina Attorney General’s (SCAG) office published an opinion stating, “we do not believe a municipality may delegate parking enforcement to a private entity.” Not long after Isle of Palms started showing up in media articles for contracting out their parking enforcement in contravention with the SCAG’s opinion, Beaufort Insider’s readers started asking about the City of Beaufort’s relationship with Park Beaufort. Park Beaufort, a private company that enforces parking in downtown Beaufort, is a subsidiary of the national corporation SP+ that was recently acquired by another national corporation, Metropolis. Metropolis boasts on its website that it is “the largest parking network and operator in North America with more than 4,000 locations and over 20,000 employees” and that the acquisition of SP+ “positions the company to deploy its AI technology to more than 50 million consumers, processing over $4 billion in payments a year.”
The SCAG’s office cited multiple state laws and precedents to support their opinion that companies like Metropolis cannot be contracted to enforce a municipality’s parking. Of note, one lawsuit the SCAG cited in the opinion was Sammons v. City of Beaufort from 1954 which was a dispute between a Beaufort citizen and the city about building the parking lot currently located at the Waterfront Park.
The SCAG’s opinion centers around a municipality’s ability to delegate police powers to a private entity. SCAG states that parking enforcement does in fact “involve the exercise of a municipality’s police powers” and therefore cannot be delegated. The city’s delegation of parking enforcement to Metropolis seems to be in violation of SCAG’s opinion. It also recalls the city’s struggles with Safe Harbor’s lease and operation of the downtown marina. Although the city’s agreement with Safe Harbor does not delegate the city’s police powers, it has been proven to be in violation of state and federal regulations.
With two major contracts that are not lawful, the city has a lot of work to do to get back in compliance. Both downtown parking and the marina bring forth a great deal of public opinions and concerns. The city and city council have promised to involve the public in major decisions like these. In their efforts to make good on that promise, at their November 8 meeting the City Council approved the formation of a seven person advisory committee to include three full time residents of the City of Beaufort. The full committee will be comprised as follows:
- One member of City Council
- One member from the Historic District Review Board
- One member from the Planning Commission
- One member from Beaufort County Council
- Three full-time residents of the City of Beaufort
- City Manager or City Manager’s Designee to serve in an ex-officio capacity
An advisory committee to decide how to move forward with parking enforcement might become necessary soon.
The city was contacted for comment about their relationship with Park Beaufort. Beaufort Insider asked the following questions:
- Does the city want to comment about how they plan to address that Park Beaufort, owned by SP+ / Metropolis, currently has control over parking enforcement in Beaufort in light of the AG’s opinion?
- How much revenue does the city receive from Park Beaufort? Or, how much does the city pay Park Beaufort for their services?
- How long is the city’s agreement with Park Beaufort and when does it end?
- Does the Beaufort Police Department have enough staff/manpower to take over parking enforcement?
This was the city’s response: “We have no response to your questions. If you would like to file a FOIA request, please do.”
A FOIA request seeking the same information was filed with the city on 12/2/24. Beaufort Insider will continue to publish updates as more information becomes available.
I live in unincorporated Beaufort County and therefore have no ‘standing’. But I follow the “shenanigans” of City Council and I thank you for investigating and reporting.