By Kevin Coughlin
Nobody likes parking tickets. But just about everyone likes Morristown’s parking director.
George Fiore is retiring this month after nearly 30 years at the Morristown Parking Authority. While downtown parking has long sparked animated conversations among residents and merchants, many local insiders regard Fiore as one of the unsung heroes of Morristown’s revitalization.
During his tenure as executive director, parking garages were built — without town funding — that enabled new housing and retail projects downtown. Some of these projects rose despite a national economic downturn.
Along the way, the semi-autonomous MPA mostly has avoided the politicization that plagues other parking agencies, thanks largely to policies instituted under Fiore, who has navigated five mayoral administrations with help from a supportive board.
Admirers cite his calm demeanor, open communications and can-do approach as reasons for his success leading the 32-employee organization, which has a $3.3 operating budget and annual debt service of $2.5 million on $35 million of total debt.
“He’s always kept Morristown foremost. He’s always communicated with me as Mayor. We’ve never had an issue,” said Mayor Tim Dougherty, a Democrat who described Fiore’s leadership as “exemplary.”
Working with town officials and re-developers, the parking authority was a “key factor” in transforming the Epstein’s department store into luxury condos, apartments, restaurants and spas, a project central to “revitalizing our downtown,” Dougherty said.
“George has a nice way about him,” said former Mayor Jay DeLaney Jr., a Republican who attended parking authority board meetings for years. “He’s not looking to beat people up, or be controversial.”
Fiore saves his sparring for the boxing ring, where he keeps in shape.
“I’ve been pretty fortunate,” said Fiore, 59, expressing pride at “helping the town move forward [with] one of the best–if not the best–parking authorities in New Jersey.”
While acknowledging some tough times, “we have always worked things out with the town. The parking authority and the board of commissioners always have the best interests of the town at heart. It remains apolitical,” said the West Orange native, who looks forward in retirement to some woodworking and more time at home in Livingston with his wife Phyllis, a kindergarten teacher; and their daughters, Alexandra and Victoria, also teachers.
Longtime board member Margret Brady said it may take a team, instead of a single person, to replace Fiore.
GARAGES AND BIO WALLS
On Fiore’s watch, parking decks were built on Cattano Avenue and DeHart Street. The MPA also manages garages at Ann and Bank streets, and at the Vail Mansion.
Working closely with the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the MPA created a new headquarters at 14 Maple Ave. that is an environmental showcase and home to Dodge and other nonprofits.
While many entities had a hand in the construction, Fiore “worked tirelessly to bring the project to life,” said Cynthia Evans, CFO for Dodge.
The building boasts geothermal wells, a living “bio wall,” and solar panels on the adjoining DeHart Street parking deck.
“George Fiore was the ever calm, persistent force behind the effort. He embraced new technology and planning methods and positioned the Morristown Parking Authority well for the future,” Evans said.
From Fiore’s office, he can see a triangular law office taking shape at Market and Bank streets.
“They came to us and asked, ‘Can you provide us with parking?'” Fiore said. “We took a hard look at it, ran some projections, and determined we could provide parking, at the Ann/Bank Street garage. I don’t know how this would have gotten built if we didn’t provide parking.”
The parking authority also is exploring a valet parking arrangement to accommodate a proposed hotel on Market Street. The DeHart garage will enable conversion of the old Liberty Travel building on the Green to 20 apartments.
And talks are proceeding with town planners about a possible 400- to 500-space parking deck behind the Morristown Post Office, partly to help the Mayo Performing Arts Center, which pumps an estimated $14 million into the area’s economy.
A few years ago, the MPA assumed enforcement of residential parking restrictions, easing the burden on police. Free garage parking for residents during snowstorms has been expanded as well.
Solar-powered pay stations and credit card parking meters have gone up around town, and the DeHart Street garage just got a pair of recharging stations for electric vehicles.
Dougherty said the authority even came to the rescue with cash when he inherited a budget shortfall as a fledgling mayor.
A HARD SELL
Still, paid parking remains a hard sell.
Garages may have brought redevelopment, but some residents blame rapid growth for worsening traffic; the town is about to launch a comprehensive traffic study.
Parking tickets, meanwhile, top the list of complaints from out-of-towners, according to the Mayor. He would like higher-tech meters that alert the public when time is expiring; council members have asked for smartphone apps to replenish meter time.
New parking meters last year brought a doubling of parking fees, which did not sit well with some motorists–even though it was the first hike in 17 years.
“Municipal Authorities are an outmoded, discredited idea from several generations ago,” resident Karl Fenske commented at the time. “Their sole purpose is to self-perpetuate their debt, thereby insuring their continued parasitic existence.”
While acknowledging Fiore is “probably a nice guy,” Fenske, who is a lawyer, said the MPA could use closer public scrutiny.
In Morristown, Fenske said, “we bought all new parking meters. But to pay for them, we had to increase the parking fees in perpetuity. This is a tax on Morristown shoppers that puts us at a competitive disadvantage to other neighboring towns,” like Madison, Denville and Westfield, where on-street parking is free.
Yet when Morristown had more lenient parking rules on South Street, business owners and employees tended to park there all day, making it harder for shoppers to make quick visits, said Margret Brady, a parking commissioner for 25 years.
“The parking industry is a tough one,” Fiore said. “So often the parking authority is thought of as the guys who give out tickets. Nobody likes getting tickets. But the parking authority doesn’t get a nickel for parking tickets. We get the heat.”
Ticket revenue is shared by the town and state.
Established in 1956 by the town board of aldermen (forerunner of today’s council), the Morristown Parking Authority is a semi-autonomous public corporation. The MPA’s board controls pricing in its parking garages (monthly increases at the DeHart facility are pending), while the council approves rates for street meters.
UNLIKELY START
The late Jack Dalton, the MPA’s first executive director, hired Fiore in 1986 from an unlikely place: The Fill-a-Belly Deli on Western Avenue.
Fiore, who has a business degree from William Paterson University, ran the business with a friend. But he was starting a family and needed to make a change. A lunchtime customer, Pat Geary, told him about his employer, the Morristown Parking Authority.
The new hire proved a quick study.
“He worried about the big picture and the details,” said MPA counsel Robert Goldsmith, asserting that construction of the Dalton Garage on Cattano paved the way for Century 21 to move into a Macy’s building that stood vacant on the Green for nine years.
The attorney estimates the parking authority has helped drive between $250 million and $350 million of redevelopment.
Fiore is so meticulous that he’s like a walking file cabinet, according to Michael Fabrizio, executive director of the Morristown Partnership and a recent consultant to the MPA. “There is not a document since the early 1950s that he doesn’t have,” he said.
Fabrizio dates Morristown’s turnaround to the Chancery Square apartment project on Cattano Avenue in the late 1990s. Fiore endorsed “shared parking,” a concept promoted by consultant Gerry Giosa.
The idea was to build fewer spaces than formulas suggested. Businesses would use them on workdays, and residents would occupy them during evenings and weekends. This concept enabled the MPA to build smaller, more affordable parking facilities that might not have happened if industry norms were followed.
“That jump-started everything,” Fabrizio said.
“He was a real catalyst to the revitalization and redevelopment of Morristown,” the Partnership director said of Fiore. “He was always very easy to work with, very accommodating. I can’t think of a dispute we had in 22 years, which is uncommon. Parking authorities and business communities often butt heads. But he ran a great organization.”
Brady thinks Fiore’s Fill-A-Belly Deli background was a plus; he brought no “preconceived notions” to the MPA.
She said Fiore’s policies shielded the board from political influence: The chairmanship and other positions are rotated annually. Checks require two signatures. MPA books are open for public inspection. And town officials pay for parking– and tickets–like everyone else.
“George’s ability to work with different administrations and municipal leadership from both parties has enabled Morristown to thrive,” Brady said.
Fiore credited his late mother with his knack for numbers, and said a strong work ethic came from his late father, an Army veteran who worked for a Newark packaging company.
“It was that World War II American ingenuity,” Fiore said. “I don’t want to brag, but I think I’m pretty good with that kind of stuff, improvising.”
The MPA under George Fiore’s leadership has enabled Morristown to flourish over the past two decades. The symbiotic relationship between parking availability and development is without question a cornerstone of the downtown revitalization and the developer interest that has been created in Morristown through the joint efforts of the MPA and the Town administration.
The negative and uninformed comments expressed by Fenske in this article in no way should cloud the great work that Fiore and his team have done and will continue to do.
Kudos to the Mayor and town administration for allowing this organization to do the work they do.
Madison, Denville and Westfield? Nope. Morristown has much more to offer.
P.S. Love those signs that say “FREE PARKING” with the quotes. Makes you wonder if it’s really free!!!