In FY 2014, the City hired Kimley-Horn & Associates to develop a Strategic Parking Plan for Downtown Billings to identify short and long term goals for the parking system and identify best practices that could be implemented in Billings to improve the public parking operations.  Out of eleven Primary Action Items listed, the second Primary Action Item indicated the need to invest in new on & off-street parking technology, resulting in improved parking operations and enhanced public perceptions of downtown Billings.  After considerable research and review of public comment, the Parking Division concluded that credit card single spaced meters with vehicle detection was the best on-street technology option for Downtown Billings.  Staff advertised a request for proposals, received two responses and recommends that the Council approve one of the proposals.

 

City Council may:

• Approve the recommendation to accept the proposal from CivicSmart (Duncan Technologies), or;
• Disapprove the recommendation to accept the proposal from CivicSmart (Duncan Technologies) and advise staff on how to proceed.

The Price Matrix submitted by CivicSmart (Duncan Technologies) included the following:
Single Space Meter - $250/meter x 150 meters = $37,500
Vehicle Sensor (pole mounted) - $100/meter pole x 150 meters = $15,000
Vehicle Sensor Gateways - $400/gateway x 2 = $800
Training/Support - $3,000
Installation & Freight - $15/meter/gateway x 152 = $2,280
Spare Rechargeable Battery for Meter - $59/battery x 6 = $354
Spare Single Battery Charger - $35/charger x 6 = $210
Grand Total:  $59,144

Additional costs will include software maintenance and credit card fees but these will be covered by the higher parking rate and utilization at these meters.
 

On September 12, 2016, City Council approved a parking rate increase for both on and off-street parking.  The proposal included an on-street parking rate increase to all meters.  All 2 & 4 hour meters were to increase from .50 cents/hr to .75 cents/hr.  Once the credit card meters were installed, parking rates for those meters would be raised to $1.00/hr with the option of a 3rd hour at the rate of $2.00.  Maximum time limit for the credit card meters would be 3 hours, totaling a maximum amount of $4.00.  The  higher rate for the credit card meters would help cover the cost of additional fees required when using the meters. A Request For Proposal (RFP) was advertised in early February 2017 for 150 credit card enabled single space parking meter mechanisms including vehicle detection systems.  The RFP was advertised in the Billings Times on February 9 and 16, 2017.  Two proposals were submitted by the deadline on February 24, 2017.  A committee of eight, including six city employees, the Parking Board Chair and a downtown business representative, met twice the following week to review the proposals.  The original plan was to finance the meter project through a low interest loan provided by a local bank.  The Parking Division now intends to finance the meters through the FY '17 Parking Budget.  The locations of the 150 meters and detectors have been determined by their high occupancy rate in the core of the downtown.  The new meters and detectors will make the downtown more visitor friendly, improve operational efficiencies and enhance parking revenues.  These new meters will be retrofitted into the current single-space meter housing without changes to the key/lock system, coin vault or cash collection operations.  The meters will accept credit/debit cards, smart cards, coins, tokens and have the ability to incorporate pay-by-phone technology. The vendors that submitted proposals include CivicSmart (Duncan Technologies) and IPS.  After committee review, the staff recommends selecting CivicSmart (Duncan Technologies) with a price of $59,144.00.  This amount does not include monthly fees, credit card fees or extended warranty costs.  CivicSmart (Duncan Technologies) was recommended due to the following reasons: 
1.  New software can be integrating with old software allowing data to be merged.
2.  Style of meter allows for a better view for those who may have height limitations.  No mass alterations needed to meter poles resulting in
     no additional costs.
3. CivicSmart (Duncan Technologies) meter contains only one rechargeable Lithium Ion battery.  The other vendor meter requires two batteries per meter, resulting in additional costs.
4.  Prolonged bagging of the meter would not affect the charge of the rechargeable lithium battery where the solar-powered battery would be
     affected.
5.  CivicSmart (Duncan Technologies) has been a longer term business partner.  There is considerable value to the Parking Division's 
     relationship with this company.

Downtown property owners, business owners and  the Downtown Alliance are stakeholders and they participated in the strategic plan and this vendor selection.

Implements Primary Action Item #2 suggested by the Parking Strategic Plan developed by Kimley-Horn and Associates.  On-street rate increase approved by City Council on September 12, 2016.