Here we go.

There's no water here.

I think there's water that you see how that would be.

Yeah, thanks for this.

Good evening, everyone.

I'm Providence Councilwoman Joanne Ryan.

Welcome to the committee on Finance, right from the meeting.

It is Tuesday, March 31, 2026.

It's 5 30 p.m.

Richard Prime.

Chairwoman Ryan.

Present.

Vice Chairman Taylor is absent.

Counselor Angoth is absent.

Councilwoman Graves.

Councillor Sanchez.

We have three present and two absent.

We have a quorum.

Thank you very much.

So no.

Okay.

So why don't we just get everybody up and we'll get everybody sworn in at once?

How's that sound?

Anybody who's testifying, presenting, talking about us, saying anything, nice to show you.

Does that include Chief the Visitors on Speaker?

Okay.

So we need you to put your raise your hand.

Take over pencil on me and clerk.

Please raise your right hands.

Do you swear into penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Courtney Hobbins, Chief of the United States.

Okay.

He just aunt the name is named.

He needs to state his at the only Zill that's in here.

Okay.

So wonderful.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Item one interview.

Communication from his honor the mayor, dated March 10th, 2026, informing the honorable members of the city council that pursuing to section 302B of the Providence Charter of 1980 as amended section 8 and 13 of the code of ordinances of the City of Providence and Public Laws, Chapter 45 through 50, sections 1 through 31 passed in 1987.

And respectfully submits the same thing approval.

Thank you.

So I'm so grateful to be here and to again re um hopefully we get reappointed to the Providence Housing Court.

Um, so just a little bit about my background.

Um in East Province Nadework Native.

I um at work currently at Lynch and Pine full-time as a criminal defense attorney.

Um, and also um a my major role in life is a proud mother of two girls who are um well into adulthood and living the best lives.

Um they're actually just making me laugh because my uh youngest daughter is um just got her master's in um neuroscience and just thought I'd share the story, but she sent myself and my younger daughter a um link that says that your children always stay with you when you give birth, their cells stay within with the family, and so she's like so you can never get rid of us, mom.

And I'm like, you can never get rid of me, and I'm always in it with you.

So um, they're just really funny, and I I that's my greatest role, but I'm so grateful to be here again.

I've been the associate housing court um a judge in Providence for the last three years.

It's been such a uh um really fun experience for me.

Um, I've gotten to know um a little bit more of an area of law that really wasn't my general practice.

Um, and I always love learning something new because the law is so fast, and you always learn something new.

I work with great individuals.

Um, Chief Judge Igliosi and um Judge Rogassa are always welcoming and answering any of my questions.

The staff is amazing, very supportive.

Um, and I've just had a lot of fun with it.

I can't believe three years have gone by that fast.

Um, I'm also a um pro vateboard judge in these province, um, and I've been doing that I think gosh for about seven or eight years now.

Um that's that's my life in a nutshell short version of it.

Thank you.

Committee members, any questions?

Any thoughts?

Um, great.

Yeah, I like to uh patient and I didn't know you had no point for my mom's house.

Oh, you did.

I hope you had a great experience.

Yeah, well, you know, with me.

Um but no, uh I you're well qualified.

So I think this is a really great fit.

Thank you.

Councilman Sanchez, anyway.

Um, yeah, I just saw thank you for one as a sort of uh recognize you know your face and your name when you're uh for us, and uh we're willing to continue this idea.

It's crazy how quick time lies.

It does.

I'm like, what do you get?

It's not fair.

Michael.

Wonderful.

Okay, may I have a motion?

Councilwoman Grace makes a motion to approve.

Second by Councilman Sanchez, all in favor, aye.

Any enclosed, the eyes have it.

Harris, you will appear before the full council for a full vote.

And thank you very much for joining us, and I wish you well and thank you for your service to the city of Program.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

You are okay, madam.

Next item, item two, please.

Resolution authorizing approval of the following contract award by the Board of Contract and Supply in accordance with section 21 through 26, B1 of the Code of Ordinances, American Traffic Solutions Incorporated, DBA Vera Mobility, 19 million 45,000, Department of Public Property.

Okay, would we have to talk about this?

Chief Walkins and Crystal Mayer.

Um thank you.

Um committee members.

Um, we're just here to present to you to give you a little bit of background on this.

We're not asking for a vote on this topic tonight.

Um, but wanted to get you up to speed.

And this we've talked over the past few years about um getting a new vendor for our camera business was a priority for everyone.

Um so we embarked on an RP process this year um and recently awarded through board of contracts to a new company called Vera Mobility.

Um we are currently in contract negotiations with Vera, and so we'll be coming back to this group um with one of their representatives when that's done, but wanted to start to lay the groundwork for you all that will be bringing forward this contract.

It will include speed and red light.

It will also include pilot implementations of block the box and sound.

And so we'll be able to go through all the details with you, but wanted to start to answer questions and understand what's important from you all as we craft that presentation to make sure that we're ready to go when the contract is ready for approval.

I'll just remind you that the this is the contract that had been previously held by conduit.

It was like a 30-year contract, and we had broken cameras and we were in litigation with them.

So we have finally come through that contract.

We've been RFP for a new vendor.

We've been working closely with court administrator Bedis, municipal court, because she is the person who has to execute a lot on this work, and she was involved in the selection process of this vendor.

This vendor will integrate with her court case management system, so she'll finally have all of the functionality that she needs to operate in the court.

And we will have a much better contract that requires has better requirements on uptime on cameras and deals with many of the issues we've had with our legacy vendor.

All right.

Again, as the Chief alluded to, we're still negotiating terms, but I am confident that this will result in savings, the city's operating budget.

It's additional services they're providing as well.

Yes, they're gonna be providing additional services, but the a lot of the fee is based on a per ticket cost, and our per ticket cost is going down by a significant dollar amount.

Great.

We didn't know any questions on this map.

Um councilman's please.

Oh, what is the the length of this contract?

It'll be a five-year contract with five one year remote.

Five year contract with five one year rewards.

Um so is like the structure similar to like what we had before of like the percentage and fees and so that would be it's a per ticket.

Yeah, there's flat fees as it relates to the hardware, and then there's a per ticket cost.

So would existing cameras need to be replaced, or is that they'll replace all the hardware because we have like some of the oldest camera equipment in the country, so all of that will be replaced.

Oh, the last question.

Um discuss at some point uh is there gonna be more cameras?

Um, so right now right now we're just talking about replacement of what we have.

Uh for block the box and sound.

We'll um those are just small pilots where we'll have a few of each.

Um those will be new.

Um, sound I know has been a fiercely debated topic.

The mayor's committed to us only installing sound in wards where counselors have signed off on the installation of that.

So we are upfront fine with that.

We're talking about two or three or four cameras in general, so that's fine for now.

Um we want to see what we can learn from this process.

Block the box.

We have some you know, real uh tough points in the city that we already know, so we'll probably suggest we go there first on those while we see if it works, because again, those are just pilots.

Oh, this last question, actually.

Uh looks like the timeline on when this would be back before us.

So we uh I mean, hopefully really soon.

Uh, I mean, it could be as soon as next week.

Um I wanted uh, you know, I wanted to have more of the contract details ready to be able to do that.

It's a July implementation, so I need to get the contract moving as quickly as possible.

Thank you.

Yeah, that would be all over.

Councilwoman Grace, do you have any questions?

No, because anyone more okay.

Um would I ask on the locations?

We mentioned kind of briefly on is that something that can be changed once the contract is signed.

Absolutely.

I'll be sure that the representative from Vera is able to talk about that process or how they'll do that technically.

And you know, we do have opportunity to move the speed and red light cameras, and we should because what we found is in some cases they're not effective anymore because they've changed behavior.

There are a lot of restrictions about those implementations, and so it is more difficult than you would think to find effective places to put them because it's harder to put them on state roads for speed, they have to be within certain different distance of schools.

So it's a little bit of a complicated matrix.

Could I also ask the size of these things?

Are they going to be the big thing?

They are not.

What will they look like?

Do they have to be a fixed subside walk?

They are not affixed to the sidewalk, and I probably have a picture here somewhere, but they're much smaller.

It is way more modern technology than what we have now.

All right.

Well, I think we are looking forward to that.

Um there's uh no motion needed on this.

Very good.

Yes, made by council miners.

Thank you, madam.

Come on, we are continuing.

Okay, item two.

Resolution authorizing approval on the following contract award by the board of contract and supply in accordance with section 21 through 26, B1 of the Code of Ordinances, classified labs incorporated three million three hundred thousand dollars department of public property.

Okay, so this RP also now has a similar time conduit right now for the city has had both of these functions, which has also been difficult for us to untangle because the technology is really different.

Um so we were able to move their current companies too.

They're not called conduit anymore, but yeah.

Um we were able to separate the functions and get way more competitive both from a technology perspective and pricing.

Um Passport is the company we're recommending for um parking enforcement.

So this is the technology that the PEOs and other police officers use to issue parking tickets and also our permitting.

Um for both of these RFPs, we ran um RFP uh selection processes that included a wide range of stakeholders.

So police were involved, Captain Sam Lucas was on this, um, the court administrator or parking administrator is really a shared effort, so that everybody felt great about the recommended um selection.

And I think we've already started working with Passport, and it is like night and day.

Um so everybody's really thrilled, and I have Anthony uh calling in to give you a little bit of an overview of who they are and what they do live from Sharp.

Wonderful.

Anthony, welcome and he would have blown up, but I told him he didn't have to, but just so you would have been we do want to see you at eventually, yeah.

So spent uh you know, two hours with Elizabeth and the courts over the last three days or so talking about what we need to do to make her life easier, make her audit trails more streamlined and help on that front.

And then I've also spent some time with uh Captain San Lucas on a lot of our functionality that he was super excited.

Questions for Anthony?

Okay.

Council.

It's five years plus five years for yelling.

Um is the title for all tenants for five years and you add on that is the estimate for the five-year term.

Um because we were still negotiating pricing, the amount that was submitted to boxes, what we are currently budgeting with the current vendor.

Uh, it does appear that this vendor is actually going to come in very close to that cost for the first year, but subsequent years will come in at least 115,000 lower because there is a one-time cost in this year's budget that will be eliminated in future years.

So I will say fairly confident that we probably had a little too much money on this away.

Um which we can chew up once we get the budget appropriated.

Sure.

Council.

Oh, um, can you explain like just quickly, like in like most of this terms, like how your software works and how it benefits of this or how you would use it?

Like I think I kind of understand um the parking aspect of it, but it's for our uh what is I do as your software due for the courts.

Yeah, yeah.

Citizens, visitors, whoever gets a parking ticket to go on in real time and be able to pay that ticket.

Um we can direct folks there through a URL, we can direct folks there through a QR code on the actual ticket.

Obviously, the city website will have a link to that.

Um, from that point, we also automate the registered owner lookup information to completely streamline and automate the letter sending process, right?

So no city staff is gonna have to look up any addresses, you're not gonna have to stuff any envelopes, like we all do we do that through a mailhouse and automate that um as well.

And then to your question, councilman, about the court.

Um, so how we understand it from our conversations thus far with Elizabeth is um you know, if someone wants to immediately come in and request a hearing, that information on that ticket needs to be available as quickly as possible in her court system provided by a company called Curia.

So we're working through the details on that integration today.

Um what that integration will look like today.

There actually isn't an integration, right?

So we're kind of solutionizing this together with her on what would be most helpful.

Um, so all life the whole life cycle of a parking ticket from issuance to delinquency to final payment will flow through passport.

Um, and then we'll communicate with Curia as needed if things get escalated to have a hearing or to be you know heard by a judge and things like that.

The other piece of this that we haven't talked about yet is the digital parking permit aspect of it, which right now is handled from a separate vendor, right?

So another third party that's not really integrated very well.

Whereas with us as the enforcement and permitting vendor, at any given time, city staff can use the same back office to look up any operational records, revenue reporting.

Um, we can even, you know, essentially block a permit application if a citizen has outstanding parking tickets until they pay that.

And again, it just kind of demonstrates the efficiency of having an integrated platform with all systems talking together in real time and having that reporting at your fingertips.

I think right now there's uh a lot of challenge with Elizabeth and Mel and other folks of not being able to get the data when they need it and having to reach out to the incumbent vendor to do so and the lag time and lead time uh associated with that.

Yeah, and the the lack of integration, like the problems that I think we're gonna solve here.

Um, one of them is I hear a lot about like I bought an overnight parking permit and then I'm still getting a ticket because the systems weren't talking to each other, and so the PEO doesn't know.

So the person gets the ticket, even though yesterday they bought a permit.

This resolves all of this because it's all one system, and so the PEOs are gonna have much more information.

The other thing that we're solving for is we've had a real hard time getting equipment from the current vendor.

This will provide a lease with that with many more of the handhelds so that they're not doing the um manual calling in to try to determine if someone can park and then which has been a hassle, and I think often results in people getting tickets that weren't appropriate, also.

Um, and so the end-to-end processing of all of this, I think, along with the reporting, like Elizabeth's um frustration, rightfully so about the information she's able to get to help run the court more efficiently has been challenging, and so that will all be kind of available to her all the time.

Councilman Sanchez.

Just a couple more questions.

Um it seems like it's completely separate, but it's probably quite a past four is completely would be like have nothing to do with our camera right sticking sending.

Um thank you.

Um, there's two questions, I guess Anthony probably for you.

Um, in terms of the like transition, um, what what does that look like?

What would you think the timeline would be for provenance?

Probably a little less than bosses on the lessons are a little more messier.

I don't know.

Yeah, you know what?

It's funny.

I it's almost the exact same timeline.

And I think a lot of this is driven from your incumbent vendors' contract expiration dates.

So we will um, and for my early conversation with Courtney, we have to launch by July 1.

Um, even if there's some things that we kind of tighten up after the initial launch and maybe have a phased approach.

Um, but we have to be operational to have PEOs trained, um, comfortable with the system, issuing tickets, payments flowing through the system.

Um, we'll probably have some leeway.

So let's say like third week of June is realistic.

And I think we've already gotten underway with a lot of our technical scoping that's required to make sure everyone's on the same page on what we're to deliver, um, which is great.

I think we've been on six hours of providence calls in the last three business days.

Um, so that buy-in from your from the city and the city staff has been huge, right?

Because that can delay a project.

Um, but yeah, we we are on track to do this before the incumbent expiration at the end of June.

Um, last question, Anthony.

Um, does this software use um AI at all?

And if it does, like in what ways?

Yeah, yeah, great question.

Um, yes, in the back office, we have the ability for the city to utilize AI to analyze the data that is getting produced in your environment.

So, for example, um, how we do this today, and some customers have opted into this, it's you know, not a requirement, but we do have the ability to analyze um a citation density map.

So a map of Providence, it'll be broken down into your different enforcement zones and embedded within passport, right?

No external system embedded within passport.

We have the ability to analyze all that citation uh issuance data and analyze trends and come up with recommendations for the city of for instance, hey, there's a high volume of tickets in this zone during this time.

Like, here's maybe some reasons why that may be, or hey, in this area, everybody seems to be getting the same type of ticket.

Do you want to look at improving your signage and your awareness of the parking rules and and policies in that area?

So just to be a little more efficient, um, council member, on what to do with the data and make it actionable, not just provide it.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Breeze, I'm glad you touched on that point.

Um question is going to go, which we need with less and less parking.

Area like Western Part from a lot of people already have these passports, these little things and they think they're they can pop in front of their house.

We all know that everybody can't pop in front of your house.

Two streets over as it is.

So with the density of people coming in.

How are we endpoints or maybe maximum out of space?

And if so, what can we do?

What are what our ideas would get around is because I think we get into that point.

I know we're already at that point in most.

Such a good question.

It is a question you should talk to the mayor about because he loves to debate this.

Um because there are currently proposals being talked about to reduce parking minimums, which means that when people buy build housing, they don't have to have parking because we want to make it easier to build parking, but then when it snows and nobody moves their car, uh uh we don't sleep for eight nights because we're trying to figure it out.

So you're right.

Like I in my assessment, all of our growth is excellent.

I lived in New York City for almost 15 years.

That's a place where like they knew how to manage all the cars on the street, and I think we have to continue to work to advance our policies to um do this.

I don't know the answer.

I wish I did, because there are pros and cons to both, right?

We don't want to make it harder to build housing by requiring too much parking, but we also know that if you don't manage parking, it causes real quality of life issues for people.

So I think this is going to be a discussion for the administration and the council over the next however long to figure it out.

I will tell you the as it relates to this contract.

Whatever we do will mean we have to get a little more sophisticated in the rules about where you can park and how you park, and then we're going to need enforcement technology that helps us make it clear that those rules are real and that we're going to enforce them because if you you know, look at our overnight parking problem that we sometimes have.

Part of the reason why it's a problem is because we haven't been effective in enforcing it.

And so we have to like agree on what our policies are, and then we have to have tools to enforce those policies so that everybody knows that we're you know we're real about it, and I think that is not easy, but work we need to do.

So I'm sorry, it sounds no, that's a really good discussion.

Uh it sounds like this uh uh company has the ability to provide reporting to hopeful that it was discussion, exactly.

So that's a good thing.

Councilwell Grace, you have to have a offense.

Um I just um I just wanted to be clear.

So you I think I heard you say, Anthony, that you were you've converted seven municipalities from uh conduit to your passport system, is that what you say?

This will be the seventh, yes.

And one is currently in in motion.

Okay, and during the, and I think councilman Sanchez was kind of getting at that during the transition, the 80-day timeline, whatever ish, eight-ish days.

What happens during that period regarding tickets?

Uh tickets still issued.

Uh, how does that work?

Yeah, yeah, awesome question.

Um we once we get kind of into the meat of the project, we we agree on like um a cutover date is what we call it, right?

When you cut over from the incumbent system to issue tickets and passport system, right?

So there's there's some overlap, right?

And it requires some um coordination with the incumbent vendor as well, because up until that cut over date, all those tickets are still being issued through that vendor, and those need to come to us during the data migration process, which is by far the most important and most complex part of the next months, right?

Um, and so when that date, when we agree to that cut over date, and and um you know, for an analogy like we cut the lights on with passport, then officers are on the street, they're issuing tickets, all the payments are flowing through passport.

Okay, it's why it's a potentially long contract because it is incredibly resource intensive to transition.

It's why vendors end up in with 40-year engagements, because frankly, if you sit in RC, there's like no upside to doing the work associated with this, except it's like the right thing to do for the city.

But if you get a good vendor and he's doing a good job, it is way better to let them do their work because it will be a hard six months on this.

Sure.

Thank you.

Um do we need any more?

I guess this is a question for uh Chief Walkins.

Do you need any more equipment to support this news uh contract?

That's included in the awards so the vendors will provide the handouts.

And what about our uh leaders?

Are they uh appropriate?

Are they gonna this will integrate with our leaders?

Okay, so they're stateing y'all.

We don't need they're not gonna say to us we can't manage because we got commuters a couple years ago.

Yeah, wonderful.

And who adjust the um I know that when we had meter discussions, we talked about you know being able to change the uh costs, the price of parking in various locations.

Who makes that decision?

Is that uh the this new reporting technology help to enlighten those decisions about costs where people are parking?

That's a good question.

Timing and all that kind of stuff.

I believe that that is that the council would have to pass something for us to change the cost parking.

That's managed through IPF.

That's a different vendor.

Um so like we've talked about doing some different things in different zones.

We just haven't come back to it together, so I think that is potentially on the table.

So what I'm asking though, does this passport give us uh information reporting to help with the decision for sure as to the shur?

Okay, that's that's kind of where it was going.

And again, helps that we're gonna get through this new uh contract we're gonna throw.

Who gets them?

Is it the police or is it parking?

Um, so parking will get them.

PEOs will get them, but we what we haven't had is some number that can be used by police when EEOs either in an area that there are PES deployed or during times when there aren't EEOs working.

The police haven't had access to handhelds, so the police department will be determining uh major aspinall is going to be working to figure out how to do that.

Okay, but we'll finally have the equipment.

There's a coordination yes plan in city equipment.

So okay.

Yes, Councilman Sanchez.

Um last question, and we um does this data um I guess the first part of the question is does this sit with you or guys' drives, or is it on the cities?

Um clouds.

Um then the final question is do we own the data or do you own the data once you do have it in your hands?

Yeah, two great questions.

Um so the whole program is is is cloud-based uh on Amazon Web Services, AWS.

Um there's a whole host of security protocols and certifications and um testing that we go through that we can give um the CIO and and other folks in IT access to our security center.

Um so awesome question.

And then data-wise, yes, you you own all the data, um, the operation of it.

Like obviously, we have access to it to support you throughout the contract.

Um, and then you know, if a time comes where you're you transition from passport, then we uh always for lack of a better term, play nice in the sandbox and export that and allow you to migrate it to whoever may come next.

So yeah, no, no, from a hardware perspective, no servers, no on-prem.

Um, really the only hardware associated with this contract at all is the handhelds in the Bluetooth printers to print out the tickets in the field.

Thank you.

Anything else?

You wouldn't really um I have a motion.

So moving to approve.

Okay, motion to approve by consumer sanchez.

Any opposed, eyes have it, motion carry, pattern passes.

Thank you very much, Karen.

Thank you, Anthony.

That was great that you joined us.

We really thank you all for having me.

I have to start my other job as the other candidate mentioned of uh getting getting two young boys bathed and fed and ready for bed.

So I appreciate it.

Thank you all.

And you'll be seeing us.

All right, thanks again.

It's all about the kids.

All righty.

Okay, wonderful.

That was great that you could join us, G.

Thanks for coordinating that.

Civic incorporated Department of Sustainability, 35,000.

I just want to make a point.

It did not print all the backup for this item.

So Carissa is printing right now.

Okay.

All right.

Apologies.

We could begin this question.

Okay.

Yes, yes.

You want to have the swearing?

So you try again.

Is the truth of what truth and nothing that was?

Yes.

State your name in your title for the record.

Kevin Proud, Deputy Director of Sustainability.

Kevin, please tell us what this is all about.

Tell me which one we are on.

I've got two on the agenda.

Civic?

Okay.

So it was published in 2019.

So we might even be a little bit overdue on an update of the climate justice plan, which is supposed to be updated every five years.

As part of that process, we're the few different consultants with small contracts each.

A community engagement and equity consultant and energy consultant and a resilience consultant.

So the one that we are discussing today is a community engagement equity consultant.

Their role will be to help us develop a equitable community engagement plan that ensures that we are engaging the community in a fair way that includes our frontline residents.

We got um four uh responses uh I believe.

And Civic um, while they weren't the uh lowest bidder, uh, we did feel like uh was the um most uh responsible uh firm to do this work.

Um the bids came very uh close to each other.

I think there's a 75 difference between the low bid and the high bid on a 35,000 dollar contract.

Um cost was incorporated into the scoring rubric, but because the uh difference in in pricing was so negligible, it didn't have a significant impact on uh the way that the uh project scored.

Um in terms of the the bidders that were lower.

Um we got uh a bit from Gather Point.

Um and we uh they they scored lower on our uh scoring rubric.

Uh and and the main reason that we uh didn't feel they were qualified to do the work is that they are relatively new to the uh consulting field.

Uh they had some uh prior experience uh in a role like you know mom for Chris Folves as a you know government employee doing projects uh like this, but um not significant um experience at this point in in that firm's history on uh being a consultant for those projects.

We want to make sure we had somebody that had uh experience in that area.

Uh climate thrive, uh also I think Gather Point was $75 lower than Civic.

Gather Point um was also lower than Civic.

They came in about $20 lower if I recall uh correctly.

Um we did interview Climate Thrive.

Um and uh they were uh impressive, but we felt like the uh firm wasn't again qualified for this particular project just based on their um kind of lack of of local experience in Providence and kind of understanding the um local context, uh especially of environmental justice issues in the city.

Uh they uh did try to address that by bringing someone on board that had a little bit of local experience with Providence, including with the sustainability department.

But it was really more technical energy experience than kind of the um uh kind of policy and environmental justice experience that we're looking for to this project.

Um so again, we we didn't think that they were uh uh especially qualified uh for the work based on um uh that kind of uh lack of um local experience.

Uh civic put together a great proposal.

Um it was um kind of strong in uh all the ways that the other proposals were lacking.

They have a lot of local experience on environmental justice issues with Providence.

Uh they've done recent work uh with Providence on uh this kind of community engagement and equity consulting uh through the Prof Court Master Plan, uh through the public street um waterfront access project, um sustainability work with them on that project, and um we know that they will be a good fit for the project.

And then the last thing I'd say is that they uh offered a fixed pricing um option.

Um and I know from experience on the public street project that they they really do kind of come in with the price and they they bill you uh kind of in a lump sum per project activity rather than uh tabulating hours.

Um and we did confirm that uh when we we spoke to them in an interview, and um we're just confident that you know we won't end up with a a change order uh for this project from them.

Um whereas both Climate Prive and Gather Point had budget proposals that were really calculated based on kind of like, hey, here's our hourly rate, here's what we're thinking the hours are probably gonna be.

So here's how we arrived at the budget.

And and if you're calculating the budget that way, uh and the cost differential between the proposals is only 75 or 20 dollars, one additional hour bill, you know, suddenly makes Civic a little bit.

Um so for those reasons, uh we did uh feel that Civic was the most qualified for um this project.

They did offer to be here today.

I actually didn't know it was really appropriate for the um potential vendor to come.

So I told them that they didn't need to be here.

Uh now I see that that you guys appreciated that the vendor was here, so I regret that.

Always ask the chair if it's admissible acceptable.

Okay.

I think the more information the committee has uh the better off we are.

Sorry.

I certainly allow it.

Okay.

Sounds good.

All right, I'll know that for the future.

So I think that's you know, I'm happy to answer any questions about the the RFP process or uh the bidders if you guys have three members.

Um please um um yeah, I um I'm very familiar with the work uh civic does, uh so I think they're uh a great uh fit for this very important project.

Um what's like the I'm sorry if we said it kind of what's like the timeline on on like when the system once you get um so we like I said we have civic coming on board uh or for an approval, uh we have an equity consultant coming on board, uh energy and resilience consultants uh have been awarded already.

We'll also be working with uh racial environmental justice committee as our community partner and co-author of the plan.

Um they were co-authors of the first plan as well, uh, and they're um under contract at this point.

So we're really just waiting to kind of like sign on the data line and then we'll uh begin the process.

So it'll be a spring uh and and summer process really for that uh community engagement and outreach uh uh segment of the plan.

And then we'll kind of uh have a draft blend that comes in, um, review that edit that, uh, get that where we want it to be.

We'll share that back with the community, uh, take that feedback and then ideally have a uh a final draft done by uh winter of 2020, what are you in six?

Uh so either you know late 2026, early 2027.

Council of Grace, I think that last sentence that the local experience will add value to the services are accurate.

Especially for this project.

Yeah, um I guessing I I I think that we should go local, I walk in the cost refusable.

Um anything else that you want to say?

I think affording the opportunity, would you like to weigh in on the math from this project?

Certainly with those definitely uh so I think you know, I do know that the internal auditor didn't recommend this item being referred because the department was not awarding to the low bidder.

Um, I felt very strongly and agree with Deputy Director Croft's assumption that the pricing differential between the lowest bidder and who we are awarding is a maximum of 75 dollars or a minimum of 20 dollars.

And both of the proposals from the low bidder were based on a time and materials estimate.

And as we know, those are our estimates and may be long.

And so the risk of somebody needing an extra hour and putting them over budget didn't feel necessary at this time.

Um it felt like the most responsible thing to do was award to Civic, since they've demonstrated that they do honor their fixed cost pricing.

And and you know, regardless of the financial considerations did have a local um knowledge that was not present in the other uh vendors.

Thank you.

That's you have any thoughts?

Are you okay with this?

I'm fine with the representations by both the deputy directors and Crystal New York.

Wonderful.

Okay, reading offer to you also.

Okay, may I have a motion?

Motion to approve over.

Motion made by Councilman Sanchez, sending by Councilman Brees.

All in favor?

Thank you very much.

All right.

Next item.

Resolution authorizing approval of the following contract award by the board of contractor supply in accordance with section 21 through 26 B five of the Code of Ordinances.

Pacific company, 117,000, the partner's sustainability.

You can gather you up again.

We did such a great job the first time until we discloses.

Okay.

So uh for this particular item, um, we are looking for approval to award re-riggs for uh software uh that's related to the roll out of the new trash and recycling parts that's uh ongoing right now.

Um so the uh vendor that's uh manufacturing and delivering our carts, I think three rig Pacific.

Uh and uh they offer a software um kind of specific to those carts that helps manage um inventory, uh helps uh manage warranties and helps manage work orders, among other things.

Um it's a uh what do you call that?

A service-based um software contract.

So you pay you know an annual fee per uh user account per year.

Um during the uh RFP for uh the carts, we did include um a request for pricing on uh this software from vendors as well.

Uh and uh in the award in the original work for the the cart uh manufacturer, um, the order contract and supply or the city council.

I can't remember uh if this got referred to the city council because it's a larger contract, but uh in that award, um this software was approved for use.

Um when we asked for pricing in the um RFP, we asked for pricing based on a three-year contract and for three accounts.

Um after digging into this further after the award was made with the uh deputy director at Department of Public Works, who works with the environmental division that does the uh trash and recycling for the city, uh works with uh our polar on that.

Um I began to have conversations with her and realized that I I had drastically underestimated the number of accounts that we would need.

Um she uh got a um presentation on the software uh and really felt it was extremely beneficial for her employees to have.

Uh right now they're managing um card inventory through like kind of excel spreadsheets, uh same thing with warranties.

Because of that, we're often like missing the opportunity to claim warranties because we're not sure exactly when the cart went into service, things like that.

Um so she she really saw the value in this, but said that uh she would need more of her employees to be able to use it for it to be effective.

And I think the number that she said was 14 or 15.

Um so uh because the difference in what was approved uh formerly and and what I'm requesting now was kind of so great, I felt like we should come back to you and kind of request uh re-approval, if you will, so that uh it didn't seem like we were kind of pulling a fast one on you guys.

Um we uh do get better.

Yeah, we do get better per uh account pricing by uh around $700 per account.

It goes down from $2300 per account to $15.60 per account.

I really did push them for even lower than that, and I'm sure that this is the lowest that we can get.

Um they have kind of certain fixed costs that they paid other vendors uh that that um they work with on this program for on this software.

Um, and this was really the lowest to go and even a little bit lower, I think, uh on a per account basis.

Um we also uh in order to get our a lower amount um extended this, like I think also just because most of our software contracts are like this now to a five-year contract with five year one-year extensions like uh the chief was uh just um talking about instead of a three-year contract with two one-year extensions.

Again, once you kind of have like committed to uh one of these softwares, it's challenging to kind of like change well midstream.

So with our software vendors, we do typically have a longer contract that also allows them to give you a slightly per uh slightly better per user fee.

Um so I think that that's uh the the summary.

Um so really what we're looking to uh approve here is the same software, just a greater number of user accounts uh and for uh a longer term.

Okay.

Chris, do you have any?

Uh I'll just think to I'll just confirm everything that the deputy director said.

I'll also state that um his successful negotiation is resulting in $11,000 savings annually on these software costs, which I think is a significant dollar amount.

Um, and I do want to commend him for bringing this to the committee because we already have an award with this vendor where we probably could have just swept these licenses in at the higher rate and still been in compliance with what the Board of Contract and Supply had approved.

Um but he did take the extra step to negotiate a lower price and bring the entire contract back before this board or before the board and this committee so that everybody knew what was happening with this.

Um and I think that you know that's just something that receives you know needs a little acknowledgement.

Um thank you.

Committee members, any questions, concerns, thoughts on this?

Council.

Okay, I mean something so when would we approve this?

Um so this the original contracts for the trash carts were approved in June of 2025.

So that was a seven million dollar award that includes the purchase of all the garbage parts and recycling parts, as well as the assumption of $6,900 in software license fees for three users.

So we've been for US plus on this number.

So I'm three maybe um, yeah, that was a little bit.

I believe the con so you had originally awarded three years under this award, um, Kevin, you're doing how many years?

Five years.

Five years.

So there's an additional two years of this service being awarded.

Um and an additional, you know, 12 users, but the per user fee is significantly less than we would have been paying under the original terms.

Okay, so my question was is how stabbing a new, so it's gonna be five years at stabbing as of now.

And then the yellow um Yeah, we we entered into an agreement with re-rig for the carts only, and then we were taking this as a separate agreement because they're kind of two two separate elements.

Um so we we entered into agreement to be able to manufacture and deliver the carts.

Uh that obviously was was successfully negotiated for delivering them now.

Uh and then when we shifted to the software uh kind of negotiation, that's when I you know went back to the DPW deputy director uh and and started having more in-depth conversations about what what she first of all, whether whether we needed this uh and if she needed it, what what she needed from it, and learned that it was different than what I had included in the RFP.

So I don't think is the timing gonna align again because I think my question was that it it's not um particularly important that the they don't necessarily have to align perfectly, but uh if the um if this is awarded today, by the time all the cart trash cards are delivered, they would be able to start using it immediately after um you know after they're delivered to start scanning cards in, scanning cards out uh and managing the inventory that way, if that's what we mean.

Well, we won't have like a period of time where we've missed an opportunity to kind of manage our cards better.

Um the original award from July was for kind of a one-time, I mean we're doing it in phases, but it was a one-time purchase of goods, right?

And so there was a term for that contract, but it wasn't that we were committing to a multi-year contract for anything other than the software that we're looking to award now.

Um so to the deputy director's point, having those two contracts be on the same exact term doesn't isn't feel very necessary because we're gonna receive the carts during a certain timeline under that contract, and we will need to continue to utilize this software as long as we have garbage parts.

So um, you know, I think the the term dates are don't necessarily need to be identical in order for us to do this efficiently.

That's right.

Okay.

Any other thoughts?

I just would like to thank you for the initiative to uh save the city some money and find work that you do every day.

I love trash.

Everybody who knows me knows that.

And you're a hero in our neighborhoods because uh we're here, council people are hearing about the new barrels being delivered, and and I think neighbors are excited about that.

So thank you.

It seems to be going smoothly.

So appreciate your uh leadership on that.

Yep.

Okay, may I have a motion?

Motion uh to approve made by Councilman Sanchez, seconded by Councilman Great.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Thank you very much.

We appreciate it.

Thank you all.

May I have a motion to adjourn made by Council?

Second by House Member.

Great.

Any opposed?