Angry Email.

This is a copy of the angry email I am sending off to the Parks Department. I also made a flier that can be posted around the ramps.

*** begin angry email ***

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing you to complain about the automatic pay
stations that are installed at all County public boat ramps. These machines do
not save anybody time, nor do they serve the public. In fact, they cause more
backups and hassle for residents.

The old system required boaters to give the user fee to a
human, who then handed out a ticket. People would pay as they drove past a hut,
before they got near the ramp. The human could accept bills in less than perfect
condition, and give proper change in bills. Once the boater was handed the
ticket, they just placed it on the dashboard of the vehicle, launched the boat,
parked the trailer, walked back to the dock, and left. The old system was
perfect.

But this is no more. I do not know who decided to replace
the guy in a hut with a machine, but it was a terrible decision. I have to
wonder whose brother sold the County those machines. It is obvious that some
vendor made money in this deal, I know that Dade County is not in the business
of making machines. Is this the case? Was the decision made based on typical
backroom political deals to give a sweet contract to someone's relative? And if
so, please explain how that serves the public?

I used the Black Point Marina on Sunday, July 3. There is
only one machine there. I had to drive past the hut where I used to hand a human
the fee, but now the hut is closed up. After I launched I had to park the truck,
walk back to the machine, stand in line, pay, walk back to the truck, leave the
ticket on the dashboard, then walk back to the the boat. This caused my boat to
take up dock space for longer than it should have, preventing others from being
able to launch their boat. What used to be a process that only took a few
minutes turned into a 15 - 20 minute ordeal. And I got there before the ramp was
very busy.

And if that were not bad enough, someone had to stand by
the machine to keep it working. Why not just keep the human in the hut? Is that
somehow worse than having to keep a maintenance guy next to a machine all day?
While I was in line waiting, some people in front of me could not get the
machine to accept their money. Of course, nobody ever has change. So the guy had
to open the machine, give the people change out of the machine, close it back
up, and have them insert the bills again. Then the thing ran out of paper, and
the guy had to open the machine up and replace the roll. When it was my turn, I
just paid with my check card to prevent having to deal with trying to get the
thing to accept a $20 bill and give me change in golden dollar coins.

What would have happened if the guy was not there that
day? A lot of boaters would have not been able to get a ticket from the
malfunctioning machine. Would the County have not ticketed anybody? Probably not
- parking enforcement would have been in there with ticket books and tow trucks.
And if that would have happened, I would have been very upset. I do not want to
go through all the trouble of getting my boat ready for a day out on the water
only to have to turn around because some stupid machine is broken. I do not want
to get a parking ticket OR get my truck and boat trailer towed because the
machine will not accept my money, or fails to print out a receipt.

When I handed my user fee to a human in a hut, none of
these issues existed. The human never malfunctioned. The human never failed to
accept my money. The human never failed to hand me a ticket saying I paid. The
human did not need another human standing next to them, in case they
malfunctioned.

I urge the Parks Department to conduct a user survey. Do
not take my word for it. Send an employee to any County public boat ramp on any
weekend and ask boaters if they liked the old system better than the new system.
Send whoever made the decision to swap the humans for machines to a boat ramp
with a shirt that says "It was my idea to install these machines, please tell me
how you feel". Have that administrator stand next to a malfunctioning machine
and tell the person whose money it will not accept how much better the machines
are.

Having these machines at the boat ramp is a dumb idea. All
they do is cause more congestion and hassle at an already crowded facility.
People want to launch, park, and go - not launch, park, stand in line at a
machine, walk back to where you parked, walk back to the boat, then go. The
extra steps only cause more problems at the ramp. If maintenance people have to
be on site to keep the machines working, there is obviously a problem with the
machines. There is no way that any Parks Department Administrator can justify
these machines as serving the public need.

And it is the job of Parks Department Administrators to
serve the public need, not to hand out vending contracts to friends who sell
parking machines.

Sincerely,

Angry boat owner, and frequent voter.