The city is still officially collecting fees for metered parking downtown, but enforcement personnel haven’t written a ticket since March 18, according to Parking Manager Mark Lyons.

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SARASOTA — The city of Sarasota is still officially collecting fees for metered parking downtown. But enforcement personnel haven’t written a ticket since March 18, according to Parking Manager Mark Lyons. And he doesn’t anticipate they’ll be issuing more citations for the duration of the coronavirus crisis.

Lyons said the city started “scaling back” on parking violations prior to Gov. Ron DeSantis ordering the closure of bars and restaurants on March 20, “simply to fit with the changing environment that was taking place.” Still, no signs have been posted instructing drivers that feeding the meters is optional.

A minor dustup occurred during a Herald-Tribune query to City Hall about whether there were plans to drop metered parking during the crisis. City spokesman Jason Bartolone replied that “downtown parking meters are still taking payment,” without elaborating that such payments are now voluntary.

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The statement drew a sharp rebuke Monday from Ron Soto, chairman of the Sarasota Downtown Merchants Association, Ron Soto.

“I’m surprised. I’d heard they weren’t enforcing it,” said Soto of Soto’s Optical Boutique at 1383 Main St. “But my feeling is, they should be ashamed of themselves while everybody else is suffering. You can quote me on that.”

Metered parking went online last summer and has been a hot-button topic ever since. Downtown customers and clients can park for free over the first 10 minutes, and are then charged $1.50 an hour. Fees are in effect from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and violations cost $25. City garage parking is free for the first two hours.

Bartolone stated in his Monday email to the Herald-Tribune that enforcement personnel were shifting their priorities.

“Since the COVID-19 public health emergency was declared,” he noted in an email to the Herald-Tribune, “our parking enforcement staff have focused primarily on safety violations such as parking in the wrong direction, parking on the sidewalk, vehicle extended into right-of-way, etc.

“There are thousands of free parking spots available (88 percent of all spaces downtown), including in the city’s parking garages,” Bartolone added, “which offer at least 2 hours of free parking.”

That reminder continued to rankle Soto.

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“As far as the free parking goes, I’m on the 1300 block,” he said, “so yeah, if you go to Palm Avenue you can find a free parking spot. Or maybe over by the library. So if they’re saying there’s thousands of them, there’s not thousands in the downtown Main Street area, you have to go outside of that area to get a free parking spot.”

Lyons said drivers are “welcome” to keep paying the meters if they want. He added that, until further notice, online payment fees for any tickets written during the last 60 days have been suspended, as have penalties for late payments.

“But with the empty streets and only having a couple of people monitoring for safety issues, it’s pretty clear this is not required, and I know a lot of restaurant people and business people would tell their guests this is not required,” Lyons said. “We’ve worked hard to make this work for businesses downtown.”