Jackson Jambalaya

The decision to cancel Jackson's parking meter contract will take a little bit longer to make.   Jackson Mayor John Horhn wants to cancel the contract.  However, the City Attorney and Council said they needed more information. WLBT reported Monday: 

The council was expected to vote on Tuesday to authorize Horhn to end its contract with Metropolis, the company formerly known as SP Plus Corporation, to manage meters and enforce parking downtown.

Jackson City Attorney Drew Martin told council members at a work session on Monday that if the request was approved, the city would not immediately cancel the agreement but would rather use the authority as leverage to negotiate with the firm.

“Ultimately, the question we’re trying to answer is, ‘Can this be terminated in a way that saves the city money over what it would continue to pay if it stayed in until the end?’” he said.

“If the answer is yes, we’re going to recommend [going] forward with the termination. If the answer is no, then we will have some other alternatives,” he added.

Jackson hired SP Plus in November 2023 to install parking kiosks across downtown Jackson. As part of the agreement, the city was expected to pay SP a management fee of $94,500 a year, along with a 2% incentive fee from revenue generated from citations.

At the time, Casey Robinson, a regional manager for SP, said the kiosks would generate about $2.2 million a year for the city.

Figures obtained by 3 On Your Side showed the meters generated $443,483.70 in revenue from May 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025. That number included $313,910 from payments made for parking, and $129,573.70 from citations.

Through June 30 of this year, the city has brought in no revenue from the kiosks, despite projecting $100,000 from them.

“It’d be better to give it away than to pay to give it away,” Martin said. Rest of article.