Two local municipalities use a third-party company to enforce its parking, including writing tickets and collecting fines.
But that all may change if the municipalities adhere to an opinion issued by South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson鈥檚 office.
Surfside Beach and Myrtle Beach use an outside source to enforce parking in their public lots and spaces.
The attorney general's office said enforcing parking is a police power and cities can鈥檛 farm that out to a private entity.
鈥淧arking enforcement involves the exercise of a municipality's police powers. Based on prior opinions of this office, police power may not be delegated to private entities absent legislative or constitutional authority. Finding no such authority, we do not believe a municipality may delegate parking enforcement to a private entity,鈥 said the Nov. 15 opinion written by assistant attorney general Cydney Milling.
The opinion was requested by state Sen. Larry Grooms from Berkeley County. Grooms asked for the opinion to question the Isle of Palms鈥 use of a third-party company.
An attorney general鈥檚 opinion is advisory and not binding like a court decision. The actual legality of using the private companies would have to be settled in court.
Surfside Beach town administrator Gerald Vincent said he wasn鈥檛 aware of the recent opinion. He noted that it was just an opinion.
The town uses Pivot Parking for its enforcement of all public parking meters and areas. This includes collecting revenue and issuing tickets.
Vincent said last year, Surfside Beach took in a gross amount of $1 million and the town netted $600,000 after fees and expenses.
Myrtle Beach Public Information Officer Meredith Denari said that city uses Reef Parking for all its parking enforcement and collections at city metered spaces.
For the last fiscal year that ended on June 30, Myrtle Beach brought in $3.3 million in parking revenues and netted $450,000.
Denari said all revenue garnered by parking meters goes back into improving parking infrastructure throughout the city.
She added that Myrtle Beach was aware of the attorney general鈥檚 opinion, but 鈥渨e need all of our officers for police duties.鈥
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