WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH — Another beach town has renewed its contract with Pivot Parking, and in its negotiations agreed to eliminate citation incentive pay from the company’s earnings.
The Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen voted unanimously on Tuesday, Sept. 8, to renew the town’s contract with Pivot Parking for an additional two years, with a one-year automatic renewal, but it came with amendments: citations, management fees and the cap.
Much like Carolina Beach did in its negotiations with the company in August, Wrightsville Beach and Pivot agreed to remove the citation incentive pay to improve public perception that Pivot issued more tickets to get more money. Before, Pivot Parking received 2.85% of the revenue made from issuing citations, which totaled $671,000 in 2025-2026; under the new contract, it won’t.
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According to Town Manager Haynes Brigman, Pivot ambassadors, who write citations, didn’t even realize it was included in the management fee calculation.
“They’re just out there doing their job,” Brigman told the aldermen.
He assured the aldermen both town staff and Pivot management would keep an eye on citation numbers to ensure the incentive pay removal did not have an effect on parking enforcement.
Brigman added by removing the citation revenue, it saves the town an additional $15,000 to $20,000 annually. The contract also lowers the management fee rate to 2.45%; this will save roughly $40,000. Pivot can take a percentage between $3.425 million and $8.1 million.
Essentially, any money made by the town after $8.1 million will not be shared with Pivot.
“Just for reference, this past year, FY26, we did 8.17 million in parking revenue in its totality,” Brigman said.
Before the contract, there was no revenue cap on the management fee and how much Pivot could make.
Town staff wrote in its agenda packet to the alderman, the changes would help “limit the management fee paid by the town.”
Pivot has received backlash online from beachgoers who questioned its parking ambassadors’ methods and motivations behind ticketing. Many spoke to Port City Daily in March about also receiving erroneous tickets from Pivot.
Brigman told Port City Daily the town hasn’t received any formal complaints about Pivot this year so far.
“If anyone has any issues with Pivot Parking and their enforcement tactics or techniques, then that’s only because the town has directed them to do that in that regard,” Brigman told the aldermen at the meeting.
The renewal was recommended by staff, who pointed to the work Pivot has already done in the town. Brigman noted Pivot installed license-plate reader technology and the text-to-park program.
“Most impactful has probably been the introduction of the Pivot Go platform that provides real-time parking data to users, residents, visitors, et cetera,” he said.
Pivot Go is an application showing real-time parking data, which informs vehicle owners about what lots have spots available; it was installed in May.
Brigman also noted the difficulty in transitioning to a new company if the aldermen chose to explore other options. The Pivot contract expires at the end of December. So within three months, Wrightsville Beach would have to put out a request for quotations, for parking management companies to send proposals in for program management and cost.
Pivot has been with Wrightsville Beach for six years; its parking program runs annually, March 1 through October 31 and is the top revenue-earner for the town, making up almost a third of its budget in 2025-2026.
At last week’s meeting, Brigman gave the numbers from 2025-2026, since the current fiscal year is still underway. Aside from making $8.17 million overall, the town kept nearly eight million. Pivot received $134,795 in management fees and $658,457 in operating or payroll reimbursement. Per previous Port City Daily reporting, 15,220 violations were issued between March 1 and Oct. 31, 2025, according to Pivot data; 9,847 were paid, totaling $630,016, and 2,554 had not been remitted. Nearly 3,600 violations were appealed or dismissed.
“First, I’d like to say that Pivot’s done a great job. We made some requests for them last year to step up their game for us, and this PivotGO app, I think, is a reflection of our request to them to put your money where your mouth is,” Mayor Ken Dull said during the meeting. “I appreciate that.”
The mayor proceeded to thank Josh Yates, the Pivot program manager for Wrightsville Beach and called the agreement a good deal for both entities.
Though no other discussion was had at the meeting, Alderman Margaret Baggett told Port City Daily she is pleased with the agreement, including the removal of Pivot’s share of the citation revenue and the PivotGO app.
“Moving forward, I’d like us to continue looking for ways to make parking as user-friendly and efficient as possible,” she said. “I think PivotGo is a good step in that direction by helping people see parking availability before they arrive.”
Port City Daily reached out to the other aldermen and the mayor to get their thoughts as well; Alderman Todd Schoen deferred to the mayor and no other response was received by press.
The contract will be in effect through 2028.
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