Carta wants to work out a few more details before it takes over responsibility for downtown parking enforcement.
That was supposed to happen Monday but has been moved back to October 21st.
If you regularly park downtown, it may mean a change in some old habits.
TOM DUGAN, CARTA EXEC. DIR. "Ok, even though you are paying, you can't stay there for 4 hours. Well, why not? I put my money in, you get my money why cant I stay there? The whole reason for parking meters is to rotate people..so those spaces are used by different people."
CARTA takes over parking enforcement from the police department on October 21st.
The city-owned bus company formed the Chattanooga Parking Authority which will answer to the same board that overseas mass transportation. The Parking Authority will contract with Republic Parking which will actually hire and train the 10 Ambassadors.
TOM DUGAN , CARTA EXEC. DIR. "We'll be calling our people that do issue tickets "ambassadors". Yes, they will be issuing tickets, but they will also carry information with them, they've been through training with the Visitors Bureau, hospitality training, we've instructed them, whenever possible to pick up trash."
But they can also put boots on vehicles whose owners have not paid their ticket after three notifications.
TOM DUGAN "We don't expect a lot of booting to go on. But you have to have that." "You've got to be willing to do it to get the people to comply with the enforcement."
The authority will set-up an office downtown where you can pay the 11-dollar fee for over parking, or where you can file an appeal if you don't think what happened was fair.
TOM DUGAN "For the first time, all parking revenues whether from fines, whether from meters, what have you, will go into one pot which will only be used for parking."
CARTA has ordered more than half a million dollars worth of new parking meters that accept credit cards.
Dugan says he doesn't expect the new organizational structure to turn a profit for the first three years.
