Department of Accounting and General Services

HONOLULU — An effort by the State Department of Accounting and General Services (DAGS) Automotive Management Division (AMD) to automate payments at one of its parking garages will affect hundreds of drivers. Starting August 11, 2025, the lot at South Street will only accept automated payments. AMD encourages drivers to plan ahead.

This lot is connected to the State Judiciary’s First Circuit Court, Kaʻahumanu Hale. The affected parties will include lawyers, prosecutors, jurors, witnesses, drivers with a parking placard (like media) and the general public.

“We are more efficiently using our state resources by automating the payment process. Currently one parking attendant staffs the booth at the gate and one attendant patrols the lot for parking payment compliance. We will reassign those workers to other duties to better serve the public,” said DAGS Director and Comptroller Keith Regan.

This will allow AMD to increase the number of parking patrol officers, which will enhance the safety of the garage, the vehicles parked in it, and the drivers and passengers. This also ensures compliance with parking rules. AMD Administrator Michael Arakaki describes, “Some of the items the officers look for on foot patrols are damages to parking facilities, people loitering in the stairwell, broken ceiling lights and fluid leaks from vehicles. We work to keep it a secure environment.”

The lot is open 10 hours a day, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. The South Street lot has 475 stalls for both court workers as well as the public. Not everyone uses their stall for a full day, so Arakaki estimates 500 to 650 people park at that garage on a busy day.

The parking process is different based on who is parking there. There are five different kinds of parking placards or permits, requiring the driver to use either a “magnetic stripe card” or a “validation card” when parking.

To get those, placard or permit holders need to file a request with AMD. It may take seven to 14 days to process the request and have the magnetic stripe or validation card ready for pick up.

AMD created educational videos on the various types of payment procedures at https://ags.hawaii.gov/automotive-management/parking-control-branch/.

In short, public and agency visitors who drive in will have to pull a ticket at the gate. Placard or permit holders still need to display those. Before leaving, they will have to visit the pay station near the first-floor elevators.

Jurors follow a slightly different procedure, as outlined here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIVUvM1Ltnw.

After checking out (and paying, if applicable), everyone will insert their exit ticket into the machine at the gate.

“We’re excited about modernizing our payment system and we will have attendants on hand for the first two months to help transition customers,” assured Arakaki.

AMD will be monitoring the success of this initiative and hopes to eventually add automated pay stations to all 33 DAGS parking lots across the state.