The city parking authority’s new smart phone app has been delayed one month and will go live at the beginning of September.

The Pango Mobile Parking app, which allows drivers to pay for parking in the city through their phones, was to begin Aug. 1.

Authority treasurer Jeff Smith said the delay was due to a situation that postponed a meeting between representatives of the authority and Pango.

“We were scheduled to meet on (July 3) to have the kickoff meeting and get everything in place for Aug. 1,” Smith said in an e-mail. “Unfortunately one of the Pango people had a family emergency which forced the kickoff meeting to the following week.”

It takes the mobile service company about a month to get all the IT work done to start up the system for a city.

“We agreed at the meeting that it made more sense to delay the startup by 30 days and to make sure everything was in place than to try and rush to make up the lost time just to meet an arbitrary start date,” Smith said.

“By delaying it until Sept. 1, Pango will have more time to set the system up and parkers will have a little more time to set up their accounts.”

When the app debuts, parkers will have the ability to use their smartphones to pay for parking along any of the authority’s more than 1,100 meters in the city.

Permit parkers in the tier garage and the South McKean Street deck also will need to use the service to register their monthly permits in the system.

The garage and deck will serve as a trial for the service before the authority opens it up to the rest of its permit lots.

While the app comes with no cost to the authority, parkers will have additional fees.

There will be an additional 10-cent fee for each meter parking session, meaning a session that would cost $1 in quarters will cost $1.10 with the app.

The monthly permits also will carry a $1 transaction fee at the time of purchase. Permits for the tier garage and deck are $50.

The $1 fee is the same regardless of how many months’ worth of permits are bought at one time.

Permit holders without smartphones can register their monthly permits through the company’s website. If the person does not have access to a computer, they can register online at the city building where permits were previously picked up.

To park in a metered space, drivers will load the app, select the zone they want to park in, and press start.

Pushing start on the app will register the driver’s license plate number, already linked to their Pango account, into the city’s monitoring system.

Permit parkers will always be registered in the system and will not need to do anything after registering with the service.

The city meter monitors would check vehicles registered by their plate numbers, which would be alphabetically displayed on an app of their own.

The meter monitors would use iPads, provided free by Pango, to access their app.

If a meter monitor sees a car parked and its license plate is not in the system, and no money has been put in the meter, then the vehicle will receive a ticket.

The zones on the app will be separated based on meter parking and the different permit lots.

The service also can be used through push commands on any phone for anyone without a smart phone.

For those not interested in using the app, parking meters will stay and continue to accept quarters.