RESPONSE TO PETITION SEEKING REFLIEF FROM KEY BUILDING PARKING FEE INCREASES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85-00988R000600100035-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 25, 1999
• Sequence Number: 35
• Publication Date: April 25, 1975
• Content Type: MISC

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25 April 1975
Response to Petition Seeking Relief
From Key Building Parking Fee increases
1. The petition addressed to CIA component administrative officers in
Key Building, protesting the Lessor's planned parking rate increase, has
been referred to the undersigned for comment. The purpose of this memo is
to explain U.S. Government policy on providing cost-free parking in General
Services Administration (GSA) leased buildings in the Metropolitan Washington
area, to respond to specific issues concerning the Key Building, and to provide
clarifying information concerning the Key Building lease.
2. The Agency's management has always been acutely aware of obvious
inequities in parking facilities for our employees located in the Rosslyn
area. There is a long history of unsuccessful attempts to alleviate the
financial burden the Rosslyn area employees suffer as a result of parking
fees. We recognize that there is little solace in knowing that other Federal
employees working in the District of Columbia suffer even more serious finan-
cial burdens in that they are required to pay parking fees costing, in many
cases, double that of the Rosslyn area. Although Agency management remains
sympathetic and sensitive to the financial burden our Rosslyn area employees
must bear in paying for commercial parking, U.S. Government policy on employee
parking in leased buildings does not allow unilateral action by individual
Federal agencies to provide relief in this area. Paragraph 3 below outlines
the conditions under which GSA may lease parking facilities for Federal em-
ployees. We would like to reassure all employees that CIA has fully explored
all the stipulated conditions and has been unable to provide the required jus-
tification that would permit GSA lease of employee parking facilities in Rosslyn.
3. U.S. GOVERNMENT POLICY ON EMPLOYEE PARKING IN LEASED BUILDINGS: GSA,
being the official U.S. Government housekeeper and landlord, negotiates the
lease with the Lessor. Generally, GSA does not have authority to lease parking
facilities for Federal employees. However, under certain conditions and;cir-
cumstances, parking may be leased by GSA in connection with the leasing of
space to be assigned to Federal agencies. Some of the conditions under which
parking may be leased by GSA and furnished to employees are as follows:
a. Where an analysis of alternate offers received from a
prospective Lessor in response to an Invitation for Bids or a
Solicitation for Offers shows that the amount of the offer, in-
cluding the specified employee parking, is not greater than the
25X1A6a offer without parking. (This was the case in the lease of the
area and in our initial lease at
or Glebe, the Broyhill Building.)
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b. Where local ordinances or zoning laws require a building
to provide off-street parking for tenants and visitors to the
building and such ordinances or laws require, in effect, that the
cost of parking be included in the rental for the office space.
c. In April 1968, GSA, acting on the Comptroller General's
favorable decision to provide (under certain circumstances.) park-
ing facilities for Federal employees, amended the Federal Property
Management Regulations (FPMR)--PBS 7030.2E--which, in effect, lib-
eralized regulations concerning parking facilities for privately
owned vehicles of Federal employees. However, in March 1971,
Office of Management and Budget (0MB) advised the Administrator,
GSA, that, since there was no overall Executive Branch policy to
guide agencies in this matter, GSA was to withhold action on agency
requests for cost-free employee parking until a Government-wide
policy was established. The effect of this.OMB letter was to im-
pose a general Government-wide freeze on providing parking facili-
ties for employees of the Federal agencies.
d. Exceptions to the 0MB freeze have been made only when the
head of a Federal department or agency has certified that the un-
availability of parking spaces for specific employees would sig-
nificantly impair the operational efficiency of the Federal ac-
tivity. Factors to be considered in making this determination
include daily hours of employment, regular and overtime; the ade-
quacy of public transportation during regular and overtime hours
of work with respect to frequency, time in transit, and cost; the
necessity for leasing parking at a location where public transpor-
tation is inadequate; the amount of on- and off-street parking
available in reasonable proximity to the leased space; the cost
of off-street parking and the impact the additional demand by
employees will have on such parking in terms of added cost or
availability; and other factors considered revelant to the par-
ticular lease situation.
e. For individuals who ma be interested in pursuing a
detailed review of publications relating to U.S. Government
olicy on employee narking, copies of GSA FPMR's and Orders
p
bvehicle- parking facilities are available in Real Estate and
Construction Division, Office of Logistics, Room 936, Ames
Center Building.
f. As stated in paragraph 2 above, Agency management has,
on several occasions, since the 0MB freeze, reviewed all the
factors involved in our parking problems in Rosslyn against the
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criteria established for exceptions to the 0MB freeze. In again
discussing this subject with senior officials in GSA on 24 April
1975, it was jointly concluded that conditions in Rosslyn would
not warrant the exceptional practice of Government leased parking
for employees' use. During these discussions, GSA officials ad-
vised that there were only a very few exceptions made on a nation-
wide basis, and a minority of these were in the Metropolitan Wash-
ington area. Specifically, there were no exceptions in Rosslyn.
The bases for exceptions that have been made were either the es-
tablishment of a temporary Government commission (with employees
drawn from various agencies) or, in one instance, a mandatory move
of an agency component to a temporary facility, pending secondary
relocation to a consolidated Government building.
4. With regard to some of the specific points raised in the petition,
it should be noted that the parking areas in Rosslyn area leased buildings,
except for official parking spaces which are included in the lease, are
owned and under the control of the Lessor. The rates for parking in the
Key Building are set by Charles ESmith GACompany leasedCbuildings intthenarea
trolled by GSA or the Agency. A survey of
discloses the following parking rates per month:
Key Building, after 1
May. 1975
$30
$25
Ames Building
-
$20
$30
Magazine Building
$22.50 -
$35
Pomponio Plaza
$30
$30
Architect Building
-
$25
$30
Pomponio Plaza East
$25 -
0
$35
Commonwealth Building
$3
$36
Nash Street Building,
(Foreign Service)
after 1 May 1975
$33 -
The smaller rates are charged for small cars and less desirable spaces. A
spokesman for CESC states, "The rates for parking in the Key Building have
not been increased since 1968. The cost of electricity for lighting the
garage, labor for cleaning and maintaining the garage, and the real-estate
taxes have increased drastically."
5. The petition suggests that the Agency is the "fee collecting inter-
mediary" in parking transactions. While it is true that administrative offices
of many components provide a collecting and payment service for their employees,
that service is provided as a personal convenience only and is not an official
responsibility of those offices. From the standpoint 'of saving employee time
in making parking rental payments, it is a worthwhile service but does not
preclude an employee's handling his own transactions with the Lessor as many
continue to do.
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6. Each of our outlying buildings has a certain number of "official
parking" spaces for the use of couriers, security police, and official visi-
tors from other buildings or agencies. These are operational requirements
and are appropriately provided at Agency expense (the'January 1975 renewal
of leases on these official parking spaces reflected a rate increase from
$25 to $28).
7. Since most of the questions raised in the petition concern the lease
of Key Building space, the following is offered as clarification. The Agency
does not directly lease space from CESC but does so through GSA. GSA, being
the official U.S. Government housekeeper and landlord, negotiates the lease
with the Lessor. The terms of the lease are available in the GSA Rosslyn
Field Office Building Manager's office, Room 126, Architect Building, Wilson
Boulevard? Arlington, Virginia; however, some of the more important provisions
are cited,. The present lease for the Key Building was negotiated for a period
from 1 January 1975 to 31 December 1980 for 5 years at a price of $5.49 per
square foot as compared to $4.07 per square foot under the earlier lease .(an
increase of 33 percent). That rate covers the rental of all office and special-
purpose space occupied by the Agency, plus such items as janitor service, water,
air conditioning, etc. It excludes heat and electricity which GSA provides
for separately.
8. Finally, the question has been raised in the petition regarding the
Items of the contract between CESC and the private (corporate) occupants of
the building. This, of course, is private information and not under the pur-
view of the Freedom of Information Act. All information on GSA contracts with
CESC, as well as GSA policy on parking, is of course available to Agency em-
ployees as described in subparagraph 3e and paragraph 7 above.
FOIAb3b
ichael J. flalanck
Director of Logistics
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