CAROLINA BEACH — Carolina Beach Town Council voted Tuesday to extend its partnership with Pivot Parking for another three years, approving a revised agreement that reflects ongoing discussions over how the town’s parking program is managed.
The vote was unanimous for the three-year contract. Though a stipulation was added that the parking management company will no longer receive money from citations issued.
The contract amendment was made to alleviate resident concerns about Pivot Parking receiving funds for issuing parking tickets. Community members argued the citation revenue, which was $243,000 in 2025, was an incentive for the company to issue more.
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The new contract outlines Pivot Parking will not receive money based on citations issued; according to Town Manager Bruce Oakley’s presentation, this equates to roughly $20,000 in additional annual revenue for the town.
Oakley told Port City Daily removing citation revenue from Pivot Parking’s earnings was to express good will by cutting off the revenue stream.
“People said they’re writing more tickets and getting more revenue, and they make more money with more revenue,” Oakley explained, telling Port City Daily it was an unfounded theory. “Many people accused them of writing tickets to generate revenue, which was not the case, but we could see how it looks that way. This change eliminates any speculation.”
Councilmember Vince Lositio concurred during the meeting.
“Because if there was one piece that was always the biggest complaint, I’m sure, were tickets that were written erroneously,” Losito said. “I always thought that there should have been a penalty involved for Pivot if any ticket was found to be erroneously written. That takes away that incentive to write those tickets.”
Port City Daily asked Oakley for the number of erroneous citations from 2025; he explained Pivot would have to provide the numbers, which he said he asked for. They weren’t received by press but will be updated after.
Oakley also was unsure how many complaints against Pivot Parking the town had received over the last two years. Though, he said the 2026 parking season only received “a handful.”
However numerous public records requests have come in, Oakley confirmed. Town clerk Kim Ward said she was inundated with several public records requests, having received 64 in the last two months.
“Of the 64 requests, six were related to parking,” Ward wrote in an email. “Other request topics included Flock camera systems, current public hearing topics, code violations, project bid tabulations, financial transactions, contracts, utility testing reports, business permits, construction permits, and other municipal records.”
Carolina Beach removed its public terminal in February due to security concerns. The town encouraged the public to utilize its public records request portal moving forward.
On “Speak Up Carolina Beach,” a popular social media group with 2,300 members, residents reported placing records requests for citation numbers and generated revenue, among other Pivot Parking specifics, without response from the town.
Oakley told Port City Daily the reason questions about citation revenue haven’t been answered is because a formal document isn’t created for citation numbers only.
“We find what the record is, but we don’t generate a record for it,” he said, noting the town is not obligated to create a document that doesn’t exist to fulfill a PRR, per the general statute 132-6.2(e).
According to numbers provided to Port City Daily in March, in the 2025 parking year, there were 5,655 citations issued and 1,308 appealed; parking revenue totaled over $4.2-million and citation revenue about $243,000.
In 2024, 6,586 citations were issued and 1,217 appealed; parking revenue was $4.1 million and citation revenue was $247,000. Reasons for appeals granted include: mistypes, ambassador error, system errors delaying payments and permit issues.
Carolina Beach Town Council first signed with Pivot Parking in 2021, which has since been renewed for two-year contracts; the most recent renewal expires in December. As a result, the town had the option of drawing up a new contract with Pivot or putting out a request for contract proposals.
However, Oakley said during the workshop Tuesday transitioning to a different company would cost the town more upfront and not guarantee a higher or similar revenue. Plus, the town only had three months to transition, as the Pivot contract officially ends in December; a request for proposals would require evaluation and onboarding to acclimate to the town’s system.
The public has been vocal about the town running the program solely instead of paying Pivot. Oakley and council noted the issue was manyfold; the town did not have parking experts on staff, nor any of the equipment and software. Getting insurance for the program and developing a new software would be both time-consuming and expensive.
“I don’t mean any disrespect from this, Bruce, but I do not have confidence in your staff’s ability to select a software system — and manage and run it — to run parking,” Barbee said.
Oakley explained the council decided to do a three-year instead of two-year contract. Pivot Parking will additionally spend $30,000 on new license plate recognition technology and about $50,000 for an automated parking system in Freeman Park; the park had a staffed kiosk for parking.
The lower revenue threshold makes up for costs Pivot is facing for the capital projects. However, it has no bearing on doing away with citation revenue for Pivot.
Mayor Lynn Barbee spoke on the cost and process of bringing in a new parking program, noting the previous transition to Pivot from REEF was laborious — and not just because of new signage. There were about two months in which town staff — not trained in parking enforcement and the software system — made errors inputting license plates.
Councilmember Wayne Rouse agreed with Barbee it would create an unnecessary hassle.
“If we get out of the one we have and go to RFP, or choose somebody else, we know we’re going to have to spend a lot of money and have a lot of aggravation,” he said. “That aggravation is going to come at a time when we have a ton of infrastructure work.”
The town is currently working on St. Joseph’s multi-use path and stormwater system improvements, outlined during the budget sessions.
“I anticipate there’ll be some displacement of parking during that infrastructure [work],” Rouse said. “I’m not sure it would be the best time to be working with someone new.”
Council approved the contract stipulating Pivot will receive 8.5% of the annual gross revenue; they only receive it once revenue surpasses $3.2-million; this is lower than the previous contract which included a $3.3-million threshold. They lowered it to accommodate additional capital costs from projects the company is undertaking.
The town also pays a base management fee of $1,850 a month to Pivot, covering the minimum costs to oversee the program. Further, if the company does not meet certain standards within 90 days, the town has the option to back out of the contract.
Both Mayor Pro Tem Deb LeCompte and councilmember Jay Healy expressed support for the new contract, as well as the negotiations made by Oakley. They both noted the work Pivot has done for the town over the years.
However LeCompte and Barbee both noted the rocky transition; the mayor pro tem then commented on the improvements the company has made. She pointed to the rebranding of the parking attendants to parking ambassadors
“Mayor, coming into this this morning, I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m going to agree to a three year contract,” she said, adding that knowing there was an exit strategy with guaranteed capital improvements, in addition to the removal of the citation incentive, was a relief. “I am very happy about that. Very happy.”
Healy added he was happy with Pivot because they worked well with the town.
“If it’s not broken, why fix it?” Healy questioned.
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