BANFF – The Town of Banff is set to hire an additional bylaw officer, hoping fine revenue from increased enforcement will more than pay for the new position.
The governance and finance committee has recommended council approve the new position in the 2023 operating budget. No decision is final until budget deliberations, which are scheduled for Jan. 18 following conclusion of service review on Jan. 9 and 11.
Town of Banff officials say bylaw officers average anywhere between 30 and 70 parking tickets per shift, including pay parking, timed parking violation or traffic offences, and it is expected that revenue from this new full-time position would pay for itself many times over.
“We’re anticipating that this position through parking enforcement will not only pay for the position itself, but be able to add an additional $120,000 to the bottom line,” said Silvio Adamo, the director of protective services.
Banff’s municipal enforcement department currently has one full-time bylaw officer dedicated to parking enforcement and addressing bylaw calls that come into the department.
In addition, four seasonal bylaw enforcement officers were hired last May through August to support enforcement efforts, particularly for the visitor pay parking and residential parking permit system.
Town officials say the full-time officer has written thousands of tickets since implementation of the visitor pay parking and residential parking permit system.
Adamo said the addition of another full-time bylaw officer would ensure that an officer would be scheduled to work every day through the winter months.
As it stands now, he said the full-time officer works five days on with two off in a week, meaning there are two days a week when little to no parking enforcement is being done.
“In the off-season, we do not have the capacity to provide parking enforcement seven days a week,” he said.
In addition, Adamo said the municipal enforcement department’s workload increases when council passes new bylaws, such as the no-smoking bylaw approved earlier in December.
“We have seen over the last several years where council has approved a new bylaw that will require potentially proactive enforcement and education as well as reactive,” he said.
Mayor Corrie DiManno said the new position is needed to uphold the integrity of the visitor pay parking program.
“I didn’t realize we had such a gap in coverage. I didn’t realize from October to May 1 we really didn’t have a lot of parking enforcement going on,” she said.
With a March 1 start date, wages and benefits for the new position are $48,750 in 2023, jumping to $68,250 in 2024 and $71,662 in 2025.
Estimates on the revenue to be generated from the new bylaw officer writing tickets are $133,583 in 2023, $194,825 in 2024 and $198,312 in 2025.
Revenue estimates are based on a review of the production of the full-time bylaw officer over the previous years.
Approximately 80 per cent of parking tickets issued get paid, with approximately half of them paid at the early rate of $36 and half at the full fine rate of $55.
Stan Andronyk, the Town of Banff’s manager of municipal enforcement, said it is anticipated the licence plate recognition system will be installed on a municipal enforcement vehicle by end of 2022.
He said having two full-time bylaw officers on staff will provide the opportunity to use the licence plate recognition system in the residential parking permit areas, while also having an officer patrol the visitor pay parking areas on foot.
“This system will allow for further efficiencies in enforcement efforts,” said Andronyk in a staff report.
