Almost a year after partnering with PCI Municipal Services to manage its parking enforcement, the City of Isle of Palms is now being sued over the arrangement’s legality. The lawsuit, filed by the Anastopoulo Law Firm, argues that it is unlawful for a municipality to delegate police powers to a private third-party company and that only a city’s police force may regulate parking enforcement.
“The suit is filed as a class action with a class representative who received a ticket on Isle of Palms and one who received a ticket on Folly Beach where the same arrangement is in place,” said Brian Stellwag, director of communications with Anastopoulo Law Firm.
The lawsuit, filed Feb. 11, also questions PCI’s incentive as they collect 24% of the ticket revenue while the remaining 76% goes to the city. Since March 2024, PCI Municipal Services has issued 9,281 parking tickets on IOP, according to IOPPD reports.
The class of persons, more than 20 in number, are preliminarily defined as all South Carolina residents who received parking violations from PCI Municipal Services, LLC in the cities of Isle of Palms and Folly Beach from Feb. 21, 2024, to present. Part of the lawsuit’s action rests on the question of whether or not ‘the cities divested themselves of core functions or police powers to protect the safety of the public, including the issuance of citations for violations of parking ordinances.’
It was a question raised by state senator Larry Grooms, R-District 37, in a November 2024 letter to the state Attorney General’s Office, to which he asked, “Is it the opinion of your office that a municipality contracting with a private entity to enforce the municipality’s parking ordinance is a prohibited delegation of the municipality’s police powers?”
In a responding letter, Assistant Attorney General Cydney Milling said, “Parking enforcement involves the exercise of a municipality’s police powers. Based on prior opinions of this Office, police power may not be delegated to private entities absent legislative or constitutional authority. Finding no such authority, we do not believe a municipality may delegate enforcement to a private entity.”
Proceedings at this point are uncertain, with neither IOP City Attorney Mac McQuillin nor Mayor Phillip Pounds commenting.
However, residents and visitors will soon have to pay more for public parking, as IOP City Council unanimously voted in January to raise island parking fees. The new fees will begin on March 1 and run through Oct. 31, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and will be enforced as follows:
- Municipal Parking Lots on Pa
vilion Drive: March and April – $10 per vehicle. - MPL Lots, Pavilion Drive – Memorial Day through Labor Day – $15 per vehicle Monday-Friday; and $25 per vehicle on weekends and holidays.
- MPL Lots, Pavilion Drive – September and October – $10 per vehicle.
- Hourly rate for on-street parking – $3.
- Seasonal Business Parking Permit – $60 for Front Beach business employees.
- A General Public Parking Permit will be available for weekly general public parking at municipal parking lots for $100 per vehicle.
Councilman Jimmy Ward asked if the increase was going to happen every year, but Mayor Pounds said it was matter of “getting our rates in line with county parking,” citing that the fee increases have not been raised in a long time.
Councilwoman Jan Anderson also pointed out that the new parking fees “do not include an annual pass.”
“And I think that is something we can bring up to consider with the Public Safety Committee at another time and add it in later if necessary,” Anderson said.
The new increases come one full year after IOP City entered into a partnership with PCI Municipal Services to manage the city’s parking plan, as more and more people keep coming to Isle of Palms.
For example, a random holiday weekend currently brings in around 65,000 visitors. This translates into approximately 30,000 vehicles, all vying for what has now become a spot of prime real estate to leave their vehicle for several hours or a day.
Visitors can park their vehicles on any road right-of-way within the Beach Parking District unless it has been designated with a sign as ‘no parking.’ Visitors utilizing short-term rentals are reminded that permits are required to park along the rights-ofway adjacent to houses.
To avoid a parking ticket from PCI, residents are encouraged to make sure their parking permits are up to date. For more information, visit iop.net/alerts/parking-decals-arenow- digital-learn-more.
By L. C. Leach III
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