The Associated Students of DVC voted not to endorse a proposed parking fee increase at a meeting Tuesday, while members of Students for a Democratic Society crowded into the room waving picket signs.

“The battle is won but the struggle is far from over,” said Brian Donovan, president of SDS after the vote.  

ASDVC members voted 17-13 to not endorse the proposal, while 13 members abstained.

Facing steadily increasing operating costs, the district’s police services department has proposed a parking fee increase, as well as other changes to the school’s parking policy.

If approved by the governing board, semester passes would increase from $35 to $40, while day passes would cost $3 instead of $2.

During the public comment period of the meeting, SDS community representative, Frank Running Horse, called the proposed fee hike “incremental oppression”    
“I want to encourage you, student leaders, to stand up and be brave,” said Running Horse, a former ASDVC president who first attended the school in 1973.

Another speaker, ASDVC member Nick Holmes, who also belongs to SDS, said, “We need to work with our brothers and sisters … to make education free for all.”
No one from district police services attended the meeting.

During a presentation at the Oct. 20 ASDVC meeting, Sharp said the proposed fee hike has been in the works since last February.  Parking fees have not increased since Jan. 17, 2003.

“We’ve waited as long as we could, but we can’t wait any longer,” he said.  
The proposal calls for the additional revenue to cover parking-related expenses, such as police aides, safety and maintenance.

Parking machines will be outfitted with credit card machines so students are not forced to pay with cash only.  

The task of processing credit card purchases will be handled by a third party, Credentials Solutions, which will charge the district 49 cents per transaction to be covered by a portion of the increased parking fees.

In an earlier interview, Charles Gibson, the district’s police chief, said the new credit card option will benefit students, even though the convenience fee is high.  
“We’ve been providing a service for all this time for little to no money,” Gibson said of the proposed parking fee hike.  “It’s time.  If you want to maintain or get better services, you have to pay for it.”  

In addition, semester parking passes would be available for purchase on-line and mailed to students, under the proposed changes.

But Christina Cannon, who represents students from Diablo Valley, Contra Costa and Los Medanos colleges on the district governing board, faulted the process for not having input from constituent groups and said the proposal’s language only indirectly guarantees parking fee revenues will go to police services.  

“My conclusion is that people are building the emphasis on police aides, and that is not what it’s [necessarily] going to,” she said.  

The generated revenue goes into a restricted parking fund that may be spent on anything parking-related, such as lighting, equipment and maintenance, Cannon said.
Cannon said faculty and staff should be required to pay a fee for on-campus parking. Currently, it is free for them.

 “If everyone would share the fee increase at least it would be fair and equitable,” she said.

But Gibson said the process would be difficult and lengthy, since it would require negotiations with the employee unions.

“Frankly, I wouldn’t mind charging them,” he said.  “We will certainly take it under consideration.”