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All parking meters in downtown Royal Oak are linked to the Sentry Mobile app that was activated in 2021. Royal Oak has announced that it has come to an agreement to end its contract with MPS at the end of 2025.
Parking meters in downtown Royal Oak have the ability to take photos of cars parked in spots for longer than the assigned time.
ROYAL OAK — Parking in Royal Oak has been a topic of great discussion and sometimes frustration over the past few years among residents and business owners in the downtown area.
These problems had ultimately led to a lawsuit between the city of Royal Oak as plaintiff and the Municipal Parking Services organization that Royal Oak partnered with back in 2021 and the Great Northern Insurance Co. as defendants.
The lawsuit was filed on June 14, 2024, and was dismissed by Royal Oak Sept. 4, 2024. Royal Oak said in a prepared statement that it had reached a “mutually beneficial agreement” with MPS.
The city of Royal Oak was seeking full reimbursement of lost revenue and to fully terminate the agreement between the city and MPS. Now, neither party will be obligated to pay costs, fees or interest to any party, according to the stipulated order of dismissal signed by Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Victoria Valentine.
The prepared statement from Royal Oak on the status of the partnership between it and MPS said that the contract between the parties will conclude on Dec. 31, 2025, which is 15 months earlier than originally planned.
“As Royal Oak continues to grow and evolve, so must our infrastructure. We’ve taken your feedback to heart, and we are committed to implementing a more effective solution that aligns with the needs and expectations of everyone in Royal Oak,” Mayor Michael Fournier said in the prepared statement. “To ensure that our parking system evolves with the needs of our community, we have begun the process of transitioning to a new parking system, a significant step towards providing the best parking solution for our residents, visitors, and businesses.”
According to the statement, effective Aug. 1, 2024, the city will no longer pay $55,000 monthly payments to MPS, “resulting in a substantial savings of $935,000 over the remaining contract period.”
The city plans to reinvest the savings into improving the parking infrastructure.
According to Royal Oak City Attorney Niccolas Grochowski, the $55,000 monthly payments were made to extend the meters’ grace period from five minutes to 15 minutes, and to extend the maximum time on the meters from two hours to three hours. The city negotiated those changes with MPS roughly a year and a half ago.
Royal Oak began its partnership with Municipal Parking Services Inc. on June 14, 2021, as well as a ticket processing services agreement.
Since beginning the partnership, residents of Royal Oak have run into problems with the service, such as failed parking payments resulting in tickets, according to the now-dismissed lawsuit.
Within the lawsuit, Royal Oak had claimed that there was a breach of contract by MPS related to glitches in the Sentry mobile system, the exclusive app used to make parking payments in Royal Oak.
Royal Oak also claimed that MPS breached its contract by wrongly issuing tickets to customers who paid within the 15-minute grace period; charged for parking on Sundays; and for a period of time did not apply purchased parking to the correct date or time it was purchased.
Due to these incorrect parking violations and glitches within the Sentry mobile system, Royal Oak stated in its lawsuit that it had to deactivate the Sentry system, resulting in a loss in parking revenue and non-issuance of parking violations.
The parking system in lots was reportedly offline for four months, resulting in a “substantial” amount of revenue lost, the lawsuit stated. The lawsuit further stated that Royal Oak was asking to be fully reimbursed for the losses by MPS.
Grochowski previously declined over email to comment on the revenue loss.
The Great Northern Insurance Co. stated in response to nearly every complaint put forward by the city of Royal Oak either “no contest” or that the company denied the allegations set forth by Royal Oak.
The statement released by the city of Royal Oak Sept. 17 said that throughout the duration of the partnership between the two entities, “MPS has been responsive” to the concerns and has “implemented several improvements, including updates to payment options.”
Parking in Royal Oak had not gone unnoticed by business owners. Lori London, the owner of Write Impressions at 407 S. Washington Ave., said that the parking situation has been nothing but a hassle for her business and customers.
“It is the single most negative influence on every business in downtown Royal Oak, including COVID,” London said. “It is a punitive system of parking. Parking should be welcoming, it should be easy, and this parking system is the opposite. Every meter is a police officer, so it is like having 180 police officers waiting for you to have an expired meter.”
London said that the parking system has been so bad that she has had to help someone figure out how to use it almost every day she has been in the downtown area.
“I don’t think there has been one day that I haven’t helped someone learn how to put money in the meter, or heard a complaint about the system, and I even come to work so much less now because of the parking system,” she said.
London is also on the Downtown Development Authority and said that when the parking system came in front of their table, the DDA unanimously said no to adopting this parking system, but the City Commission ended up saying yes to the contract.
Michael Sophiea, Chairman of the Royal Oak Downtown Development Authority, said in the Sept. 17 press release that he and the Downtown Development Authority are in support of the recent agreement between MPS and Royal Oak to terminate the partnership.
“The Royal Oak Downtown Development Authority fully supports the City Commission and the ROPD in their efforts to replace the current parking system in the Downtown District,” he stated. “We believe this action will help to rectify some of the issues that have arisen in the past. The DDA is excited about the opportunity to work with a new parking system that is extremely user-friendly. We hope this allows our residents and guests a more pleasurable experience when visiting Royal Oak.”
Write Impressions has been in business for 34 years, and London said that the parking system before was just fine; she saw no need to change it in the first place.
“There was no reason to change what they had. What they had was Park Mobile. When people had it on their phones, they knew how to use it,” she said.
In the Sept. 17 statement, City Commissioner Brandon Kolo said that the termination of the agreement is the outcome that the community has wanted.
“Our focus remains on ensuring that residents, businesses and visitors are best served by our parking system. As we move forward, we’re committed to finding a user-friendly solution that makes it easy for people to live, work, and play in Royal Oak.”
In the months to come, the city is going to be exploring different avenues for parking management, according to the statement.
Grochowski said in an email response that the MPS system will remain in place until December 2025 and there will not be any changes in the process of parking made until then.
“As we look to the future, we’re excited to engage in a collaborative process where residents, business owners, and other relevant stakeholders will have a voice in shaping the future parking system that truly serves our vibrant community,” he said via email.
The Royal Oak Review attempted to contact MPS through the email listed for media inquiries on its website, info@mpspark.com, and through a public relations company, but was unsuccessful before press time.
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