Here’s an interesting chart…like many private employers, the City of Minneapolis offers appointed employees a choice of transportation benefits: a Metropass, good for unlimited trips on public transit, or contract parking within a block or two of their offices. Appointed employees are the 160 or so City staff who make up its non-elected leadership–people like department heads, assistant and deputy department heads, some attorneys, and a few others. You can view a list of all the job titles here.
According to a data request from the city, there are currently 163 employees in appointed positions, though this number will vary a bit from pay period to pay period from regular churn in a group of that many people. Out of that group, 30 employees choose the Metropass and 81 choose contract parking, which is mostly located in the Federal Courthouse ramp across the street from City Hall. The City has offices all over Minneapolis, and presumably most of those employees who didn’t choose an option work outside downtown where free parking is provided onsite or on street nearby. Each Metropass costs $76/month, while each parking space costs $145/month.
The numbers will ultimately fluctuate a bit as employees come and go and choose different options, but extending the above figures to an annual amount, we get $27,360 for Metropasses and $140,940 for parking. If every appointed employee who picked one or the other picked the Metropass, it’d cost $101,232 for the year; if they all picked parking it’d be $193,140 for the year.