This afternoon Aspen City Council will review an audit of city finances, and take comments on who should take over the Old Power House building. The audit comes after a widespread parking scam. The review shows the parking scam cost the City more than $200,000-- much less than previously thought, because the audit assumes people who took advantage of free parking would have found a way to avoid parking in the first place, rather than paying the usual twenty eight dollars a day.
“Because of that high cost, it just seemed to make sense to us, that a lot of people aren’t going to pay that,” says John Olenberger. He’s based in Denver and did the audit. “ Especially if you look at local workers, at restaurants, who aren’t necessarily earning a lot. You don’t want to spend several hours of your pay on parking.”
Olenberger believes, after interviews with the City of Aspen and spending two weeks in Aspen, that local workers most likely were the main culprits in the scam. The understanding is those workers would have found other, cheaper ways to get to work, without duping the system. A meter glitch allowed people to use empty prepaid debit cards and other methods to obtain parking slips. The loss to the City includes credit card processing fees and lost revenue from parking fees.
Overall the audit found Aspen’s financial controls are in good shape, with some recommendations for improvement. City Council will consider them tonight.
Council will also hear public comments on who should move into the Old Power House building. Five groups are vying for the location, formerly home to the Aspen Art Museum.
