OAK ISLAND — Oak Island made an additional $122,000 from its parking program this year, far exceeding expectations of both town council and the parking enforcement company the town hired.
CEO Jim Varner from Otto Connect, the company enforcing and managing Oak Island’s parking program, gave a presentation on Nov. 12 to town council reviewing the program’s success. Otto Connect has been the service provider for the Oak Island parking program, managing and enforcing it since launching in 2023.
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The total net revenue from the parking program was $1.313 million with 166,152 recorded vehicles parked. About 98,000 were visitors and another 67,000 were residents.
“This revenue is sustaining our budget, make no mistake about that,” Mayor Pro Tem John Bach said at the meeting. “The reason we don’t have tax increases, the reason we’re hiring more staff, is because we have paid parking. It’s very simple.”
The town experienced an increase in revenue between the years 2024 and 2025, with an additional 4,000 parkers, an over $300,000 increase in violation payments, and from the cost of seasonal permits lending to a $58,775 increase. While permits for residents cost $10, this year season parking passes escalated in price — going from $175 to $225. 2025 parking rates were $5 an hour and $20 a day, April 1 to Sept. 2 of this year.
Otto Connect recently amended its contract with the town in January 2024, effective 2025, to increase the parking program’s revenue, expanding the company’s enforcement hours from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. which cost an additional $25,000. In 2025, Varner said, the town was nearly able to break even on the additional enforcement cost stipulated in the contract amendment because of the revenue made on the citations issued between the hours of 5 p.m. and 9 p.m alone.
Port City Daily reached out to town staff to see if the revenue from the after hours citations alone could be provided but did not hear back by press.
June and July had the biggest stream of revenue at $244,000 and $260,000, respectively, which Varner said was to be expected. May and August, or the end of the school year versus before the new school year begins, also had large revenue streams at around $146,000 each.
$157,000 came in during the start of the season in April.
The bulk of the revenue came from the day permits and upgrades, at $601,545 total.
However, the increase in season permit costs also led to a decrease in permit purchases. In 2024, Varner explained, the town sold out of passes, whereas the 2025 season had 1,417 sold.
Fleet permits for the season were $225 for the first four cars, and $375 for vehicles after that. Only 49 sold.
The biggest challenge came with the additional 100 resident-only parking spaces, now totaling 400.
The 100 spaces were spread out equally around the town’s existing over 1,000 paid parking spaces, communications manager Michael Emory explained. But larger parking areas like Middleton Park Complex had more converted into residential-only spaces because they had more paid parking spaces to use.
“And what did we hear from people?” Varner prompted to council. “‘I always park there.’ Well, now it’s a resident-only space, and you’re not a resident. I’m sorry; and they learned the hard way.”
Varner described the change as the primary driver for violation increases, which went from a net total of 6,287 in 2024 to 6,973 this year, marking a 686 increase. The violations for parking in residential only spaces, in 2025, were counted at 2,357, a 696 increase from 2024; this was the largest increase in violation types between this year and last.
Comparatively, pier parking violations decreased in 2025 at 277 instead of 359 from last year.
The season also had an increase in written warnings. Varner explained most were issued to residents who hadn’t purchased permits yet.
The number of citations, though, was within the threshold Otto Connect desires. The percentage considers the number of citations compared to the number of vehicles, which landed at 4.2% this year — below the 5% threshold.
“I’d like it to be down in the threes. Anything less than five is good. Less than four is really good. And I was thrilled last year when we were at 3.7,” Varner said. “4.2 I’m not going to complain about.”
Most of the 6,973 violations have been paid, though 1,768 have not. Varner said 376 of the citations have been sent to the collection agency, Financial Data Systems, and as the winter months roll in, the citations will continue to be sent to the collections agency as they were last year.
The agency takes about three months to collect payment and the fee for sending the violations to the agency is $75 per ticket. The collection agency then takes an additional 30% from that fee; Otto Connect takes 30% from whatever is left, and the remaining money is sent to the town.
Varner called Oak Island a bit of an “anomaly” with violation payments.
“Every other town that I work with, we would typically see 5,000 same-day payments and 1,000 within 30 days,” he explained. “We don’t know why it’s different here.”
Oak Island only received 1,564 same day payments this year, and 3,217 within 30 days.
Varner recommended enforcing parking violations in right-of-ways, allowing Otto to cite at no parking zones, and on the sidewalk. Varner also suggested the council consider expanding its season to closing in October. but noted that it was ultimately council’s prerogative to do so.
He commented that the company would be able to increase the net revenue of the town’s enforcement and citations if so, and, he added, the town would do more than just break even with the $25,000 charge for additional enforcement hours that was stipulated in the contract amendment from 2024. Varner said they would exceed the $25,000 on the citations from even further additional enforcement alone.
“It’s just a one liner in a contract amendment,” he said of the changes.
Have tips or suggestions for Emily Sawaked? Email emily@localdailymedia.com
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