Parking will remain free in Howarth Park for now following a dramatic early morning decision by the Santa Rosa City Council to table the controversial plan until the city’s finances become clearer. The council agreed to revisit in October a proposal to charge people $5 per day to park in the city’s most popular park. Every council member came up with something they didn’t like about the plan.

The City Council’s plan to begin charging fees to park at Howarth Park is one of the most unpopular proposals to come out of City Hall in many years. “I think that the City Council will have a hell of a backlash if they do this,” says Lynn Duggan, who owns a shopping center across the street from the park. But city officials say the alternative is worse.

Facing a possible rejection of the controversial plan to charge for parking at Howarth Park, the Santa Rosa City Council on Tuesday postponed a decision until the entire council can weigh in on the matter. The decision capped an emotionally charged hearing on whether to charge people $2 for two hours or $5 ­per day.

Santa Rosa on Tuesday again will consider the controversial plan to charge people $5 a day to park at Howarth Park, something it postponed last year to avoid voter backlash against a city sales-tax ballot measure. The council already has approved a city budget that assumes the revenue from the parking fees, so approval seems likely. Nine solar-powered ticket kiosks, like the ones downtown, are likely to be installed and operating by the fall.

A divided Santa Rosa City Council approved a $315 million budget Wednesday that preserves police and fire services and keeps open popular city facilities like pools, but pays for those services in some unpopular ways, including a parking fee at Howarth Park. Three dissenting council members said they were unhappy with the way public safety budgets were being spared deeper cuts at the expense of other city departments.

Santa Rosa voters last fall passed a quarter-percent sales tax to protect “vital city services” from being gutted. In just over a week, they’ll see if they’re getting what they paid for. The budget debate gripping City Hall for the past several weeks culminates with three days of hearings beginning June 14 that will determine how the $6.5 million in new sales taxes will be spent.

The Santa Rosa City Council moved to protect public safety departments from the budget ax Thursday, advising the city manager not to move forward with a $700,000 cut to the Police Department and to find the savings from city departments other than the Fire Department. City Manager Kathy Millison thinks she has found a way to achieve the savings without closing Ridgway Swim Center and the city’s senior center — but it will require employee concessions and cuts in other departments.

Santa Rosa Councilman Gary Wysocky says the City Council promised voters it wouldn’t charge them to park at Howarth Park if they passed Measure P, last fall’s quarter-cent sales tax to support city services. Mayor Ernesto Olivares says that’s not how he remembers it. Who’s right? Turns out, they both are.

The Santa Rosa City Council is backing away from a controversial plan to charge people $5 to park at Howarth Park. The plan has been postponed until after the Nov. 2 election. Some councilmembers worried the fee might erode support for a quarter-cent sales tax on the fall ballot.

The Santa Rosa City Council may postpone a plan to charge people $5 to park at Howarth Park until after the Nov. 2 election. City officials had planned to ask the council Tuesday for approval to buy the parking stations needed to begin the controversial program.