Press reports say that no one in the city government of Santo Domingo has been able to provide any information on who are the people behind the concession to operate proposed parking meters on Santo Domingo city streets. Reportedly, a contract with Parqueos Dominicanos, S.A. establishes a pittance for the city governments while the private company will reap most of the benefit from charging city residents RD$10 per hour for parking in spaces that are currently free.
The original contract with the company was signed in February 1995 when the municipal government was under the PRD rule of the late Mayor Jose Francisco Pe?a Gomez. It was not implemented because it was an election year and the PRD felt the new charge would affect its chances of victory. At the time, Pe?a G?mez himself was running for President.
Seven years later, Johnny Ventura, PRD mayor of Santo Domingo from 1998 to 2002, dusted off the concession contract and had it approved prior to leaving office. When the PRD lost the next municipal election and Roberto Salcedo of the PLD was elected mayor, the contract was once again put aside.
Now, the Sala Capitular (the city government council) has approved it again. List?n Diario columnist Orlando Gil says it is yet to be seen whether the contract will be implemented as is, whether there will be changes made, or whether it will again be put aside, and wonders if Mayor Roberto Salcedo will renegotiate the terms.
Gil points out that the implementation of a parking meter system in the city will be another burden on a middle class population that even President Hip?lito Mej?a admitted can take no more economic blows.
The contract passed through the city government with the vote of PLD city council members. The columnist speculates that such a contract would only do harm to the PLD, as there is legitimate reason to suspect that corruption is the motivation to put such a plan in action.