Milwaukee Seeks New Parking Czar

A parking meter in Milwaukee. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The City of Milwaukee is looking for a new manager of its parking operations.

Long-time manager Thomas Woznick is out.

“He has moved on. It was an administrative decision,” Department of Public Works (DPW) Commissioner Jerrel Kruschke told Urban Milwaukee after Wednesday’s Public Works Committee meeting.

A new parking services manager will take over four key areas: parking enforcement, permits, the tow lot and the city’s many parking structures, lots and meters. Current tow lot manager Peter Knox is serving as interim manager, said Kruschke. The various areas are expected to generate more than $23 million in revenue in 2025.

The 2025 budget called for Woznick to be paid $121,847.

Woznick’s most recent public appearance before a council committee was on Feb. 26 when the Comptroller’s Office presented an audit of the city’s parking structure operations. The audit found the city wasn’t properly enforcing its agreements with outside contractors, but only labeled the risk rating as “medium.” It suggested developing better controls over performance and processes. It also found that DPW wasn’t depositing checks in a timely manner.

“When I sat back and read this last week, I couldn’t believe it,” said Ald. Peter Burgelis. “This is a systematic failure to hold vendors accountable and have receipts for revenue the city is supposed to be collecting.”

When the Public Works Committee reviewed the proposal earlier in February, Ald. Robert Bauman expressed disbelief that checks weren’t being deposited and that more controls weren’t in place on outside firms operating the structures.

Woznick said many of the items had already been addressed in November. He said processes were also in place prior to the audit, but not documented. As for Burgelis statement about a systematic failure, Woznick shrugged it off: “I wouldn’t say that isn’t an accurate statement,” he said.

Parking Enforcement Fully Staffed, Tickets To Follow

During Wednesday’s committee meeting, Kruschke said the new manager will inherit a fully staffed roster of parking enforcement officers. The position had been plagued with vacancies for several years, but Kruschke said there is now a waiting list of applicants. The city has increased pay rates, switched to mailing some tickets to avoid confrontations and opened a continuous recruiting process.

After issuing 463,098 citations in 2023 and budgeting to issue 455,000 in 2024, the city expects to issue 500,000 in 2025. It has also increased the average citation cost by $12 as part of the first notable increase since 2009.

Council members, led by Bauman, have called for more even enforcement and noted certain areas appear to receive little attention, resulting in issues with leaf pickup and street sweeping.

Kruschke said he expected to request five more enforcement officers in the 2026 budget cycle. “I’ve always wanted to increase parking enforcement officers because it’s been a big topic across the city,” and it actually adds no costs. The positions, said the commissioner, are expected to be self funded through citations.

A job listing has yet to be posted, but is expected to happen soon. “This just happened like two days ago,” said the commissioner.

The new manager will also be responsible for something Kruschke said last fall is soon to come: expanding meter hours. The council, in March 2023, authorized extending the period in which meters were in effect from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and putting more meters into effect on Saturdays. DPW has never implemented its full, market-based strategy from 2018 that would raise rates in certain areas and lower them in other areas based on usage. The commissioner said the city believes parking meter rates are designed to ensure enough turnover that people can get access to spots.

Woznick is the second DPW manager to exit in the past year. Streetcar operations manager Andrew Davis-Lockward resigned in lieu of being fired last fall.

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