Two city parking authority board members Wednesday night blocked a vote to dissolve the authority, prompting the city’s mayor to dismiss them from the board.

Kirk Keys and Tom May voted against the motion to authorize the authority’s chairman and secretary to sign documents to disband the authority.

“This just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me,” Keys said.

Authority Chairman Jim Chiprean and Jerry Johnston voted for the motion, which failed with a 2-2 split. Board member John Mossman was not at the meeting.

The city is asking the authority to dissolve so the city can take over management of the authority’s lots and the tier garage. City officials say the move is a requirement of the bond rating that the city received to get a $6.8 million bond issue to pay for its new parking garage on South McKean Street.

Mayor Tom Donaldson said he will remove May and Keys from the board and replace them with residents who will vote in favor of it — a decision he said he can make as mayor without council’s involvement.

“I already have two people in mind who I will appoint,” he said.

Chiprean recessed the meeting until 5:30 p.m. Monday.

Donaldson said he will have two new members on the board by that time.

The city plans to replace the authority with a paid part-time parking manager. Council has already said the position likely will be filled by Chiprean, who has been chairman of the authority for 18 years.

The salary for the position has not been approved by council. Donaldson proposed it be $35,000 but council said it would further explore that amount.

May said he wasn’t sure how the disbanding was a requirement of the bond rating. But Donaldson read a section of the rating done this year by Standard and Poor’s Rating Services of New York that states: “It is our understanding that the authority will be fully dissolved with the completed sale of the bond proceeds.”

The mayor said the city “interprets” that clause to mean it must dissolve the authority.

May also questioned why the city wants to replace the authority, which manages most of the city’s parking lots and tier garage for free, with a paid position.

“I just can’t see why council wants to take that over,” said May, who is the brother of city Councilman Bill May, who also expressed concerns about the move at the city’s meeting Tuesday night. “The city gets all that management for free right now.”

Tom May said he feared the city would try to use the revenues the parking authority earns to pay for expenses not related to parking.

Tom May said any money the authority earns is intended to be used for parking improvements. Bill May expressed the same concerns to council Tuesday night.

Councilman Cheri Readie said the city will keep the $500,000 parking budget separate from the city’s $8.6 million budget.

“Parking needs to remain revenue neutral,” she said, adding that city solicitor Jim Coulter is looking into any protections the city can place on the parking fund to prevent its money from being used elsewhere.

Both Donaldson and Readie said having the city take over parking responsibilities also will make management more efficient. Right now, the city manages street parking and three lots, while the authority manages the rest of the parking.

Donaldson said the city does not need the vote of approval to move forward with dissolving the authority, but said it makes the process easier. Council was set to vote tonight on whether to disband the authority.

Authority solicitor Robert Stock questioned why the authority needed to vote to disband if the city is headed that direction already.

“It looks like the city is moving forward with it anyway,” he said.

Both May and Keys said they respected what the city was trying to do, but ultimately said they did not feel comfortable supporting the move.

Donaldson said he remains confident the decision to disband the board will be approved.