Premium Parking sues Pensacola parking consultant alleging theft of trade secrets

Premium Parking is suing Pensacola's parking consultant Philip Olivier, alleging he stole the company's trade secrets and embezzled company funds by hiring shell companies to perform work done by Premium employees.

The existence of the lawsuit became public just after Olivier delivered his report to the City Council this week with new recommendations for city-owned parking rules.

Included in the report is an examination of a program other cities have to manage parking enforcement on private lots that would put the city in direct competition with Premium Parking.

In court filings, Olivier has denied all of the allegations in Premium Parking's lawsuit.

Olivier was previously president of the Gulf Coast market for Premium Parking before he left the company in April.

"While anyone can make allegations in a lawsuit, I look forward to the case progressing in the court system as I believe their allegations will be proven to be untrue," Olivier told the News Journal in a written statement.

Premium Parking filed a lawsuit against Olivier in federal court in Louisiana on Aug. 14 that alleged Olivier had stolen Premium's "playbook for the Gulf Coast Market" and embezzled funds by creating shell companies that then invoiced Olivier for work in Pensacola and other markets he managed.

Premium Parking is a private parking management company based out of New Orleans. The company manages virtually all of the privately owned parking lots in downtown Pensacola that charge for parking.

Premium Parking entered the Pensacola market in 2018 to manage both private lots and city-owned parking spaces under a contract with the Downtown Improvement Board.

The DIB managed parking on behalf of the city at the time.

The DIB terminated Premium Parking's contract to manage city parking after just five months as complaints about Premium Parking grew, and the leadership of DIB changed and concluded that the contract was too expensive.

The fallout from the episode eventually led to the city creating its own parking department and ending the DIB's control of city parking. Meanwhile, Premium Parking expanded its business in Pensacola to become the go-to parking management company for owners of private lots, largely under Olivier's management.

In the last year, Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said one of the top complaints his office receives is about parking downtown, and most of the complaints are centered around practices on private lots the city does not control.

The city hired Olivier in July with a $49,950 contract to evaluate the city's parking system and make recommendations to improve it.

Olivier's consultant report to the city included an examination of the city creating a partnership for private lot owners to use the city's parking department for enforcement.

The report only raised the issue and made no official recommendation, but Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves told the News Journal last week he was open to the idea.

"I think we've been in a 'two app, two sets of rules, two sets of an enforcement' nightmare that we're all as a community ready to be out of," Reeves said last week.

If the city took the move, it would put it in direct competition with Premium Parking.

Reeves told the News Journal on Thursday that learning about the lawsuit didn't change his view on the city's parking situation or on Olivier's work product for the city.

Reeves pointed out that national parking expert Donald Shoup praised Olivier's report on social media, calling it the "best consultant report on parking he'd ever seen."

"I think that the city is in a good place and has made a good decision," Reeves said. "The city transacts with dozens and dozens of vendors on a regular basis, and civil lawsuits that entail bickering and lost love between a former employee and its employer is really not the city's concern."

Reeves said the city got its first holistic review of its public parking experience and is now on a path forward to put those changes into effect.

"I don't think it is the city's place to be punishing a vendor, an engineer, a parking consultant or otherwise, because of unfounded civil allegations," Reeves said.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Premium Parking sue Pensacola advisor alleging theft of trade secrets