Napier parking warden retires after 38 years on the streets

Senior parking officer John McKelvie on one of his last days on the streets in 38 years of monitoring the meters in Napier. Photo / Doug Laing

Napier parking warden John McKelvie says he might once have been “one of those pricks” that CBD drivers love to hate.

But a lot can change in 38 years on the beat – he took the hint from a friend who reckoned he looked like a “garden gnome” as he strutted around in his uniform.

He says he grew out of it, learnt to deal with most situations, and when he retired on Friday it was as what a Napier City Business social media post called “the legend in blue”.

Talking with Hawke’s Bay Today in his last week, he recalled tentatively answering a situations vacant notice in the Napier Daily Telegraph in February 1987, a country boy who had lost his quality control job in the sudden closure of the Whakatu meatworks four months earlier.

He reckons he’d never seen a parking meter – growing up in the country and leaving school to look for work at the age of 15, he’d never thought he might end up in uniformed enforcement.

McKelvie says the key to being a good parking warden is to tame overstaying parkers using communication and reason, and knowing when to take a step back.

He said he had to learn to know when to let people know he wasn’t there to argue, and to tell them to take up their concerns with the council – his employer – where he started as a warranted traffic officer with its City Traffic Department, with specific parking duties.

“I grew up and realised what it is really all about,” he said, now appreciating the support from the public, most of whom “did” understand his position.

“It’s all about traffic and pedestrian safety.”

He said the tickets he’s issued over the years have not been because the council wants to fine people, the issue that dominates the kerbside narrative.

He’s heard all the stories of motorists having to rush to the loo or duck into a shop to get some coins, but there are times it’s best to “just walk away”.

Most of the inventive excuses and complaints end up with office staff, the people best placed to deal with the issues, which include the fallout after fees increased over the last two years.

When he started the new job in uniform after the works closure that cost the region 2000 seasonal and fulltime jobs, he hadn’t thought he’d get the job and said: “I was a bit worried I didn’t have the skills.”

There he was – “book, pen, and pencil”, patrolling the streets, including Friday-night shopping, and issuing handwritten tickets, which have been replaced by various forms of technology since about 1997.

He was there when City Traffic (the “traffic cops”) amalgamated the traffic safety services of the Ministry of Transport, which were then merged in 1992 with the Police.

The council retained “Parking”, from which McKelvie retires as a senior parking officer.

It’s a job he continued well after the notional retiring age, for good reason, as well as addressing the issue: what else would he be doing?

“I really appreciate the support I’ve had from many people,” he said.

“It has taken the stigma away, and that’s probably one of the reasons I’ve stayed so long.”

Besides, stepping out at 16-17km a day is good for the health, and it came with two pairs of shoes provided each year.

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 52 years of journalism experience, 42 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.