Parking Payment Services Contract on Monday’s Consent Calendar

As part of Monday’s consent calendar, the City Council will vote on a $1,227,600 contract with Passport Labs to provide mobile parking payment services.

In 2018, the city entered into an agreement with Passport Labs, Inc., as the highest scoring vendor, to accept mobile meter payments through the Passport mobile app.

After an agreement was reached,  the number of transactions processed via the Passport app steadily increased until the onset of the pandemic in March of 2020, when the City paused a majority of its parking enforcement efforts.

Since reopening, Passport transactions have again steadily increased with 71,904 transactions for December, 27% above pre-pandemic levels. Additionally, data indicated that a larger proportion of meter payments are being made via the Passport app than prior to the pandemic.

In November, the Passport app accounted for 36% of overall parking meter revenue and 57% of total credit card transactions for parking meter payments, according to a city staff report.

“Staff attributes a majority of the increase in use of the Passport app to the desire for a contactless payment solution for parking meter payments, and a review of the data indicates that most first-time users tend to utilize the app for all of their subsequent parking meter transactions,” according to a report contained in Monday’s agenda.

Here are the remaining items on Monday’s consent calendar.

•  a Resolution of Intention to renew the South Lake Avenue Property and Business Improvement District (SLA PBID), and setting a Public Hearing for 5 p.m. on April 25.  The SLA PBID encompasses properties generally bounded by Colorado Boulevard on the north, Mentor Avenue on the east, an east-west line approximately 260 feet south of California Boulevard on the south, and Hudson Avenue on the west. The PBID is generally surrounded by residential neighborhoods on the south, east, and west and the Playhouse PBID on the north. The programs and activities to be funded by the SLA PBI D include: maintenance, ambassadors, marketing/promotions, economic advocacy and administration/operations. The property uses within the boundaries of the PBID that will receive special benefits from PBID-funded programs, services and improvements are currently a mix of commercial, public parking and residential. Since formation, the SLA PBID has been instrumental in bringing physical improvements to the District, has established a single voice of advocacy and provided much-needed attention to the district through enhanced services.

• Separate $1,000,000 contracts with Gonzalez Goodale Architects, Onyx Architects, Dahlin Group,  HH Fremer Architects, and Gruen Associates for on-call architectural engineering services.  The Department of Public Works is seeking qualified on-call architectural engineering services consultants to provide professional services on an as-needed basis for the City of Pasadena’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) over the next four years. The scope of work may include, but is not limited to, preliminary studies, conceptual designs and renderings, construction plans, specifications, cost estimates, mapping and surveying, master planning and programming, construction administration, and building code analysis. “The selected consultants will provide services when City staff is not readily available, or when services exceed the expertise and/or qualifications of City staff,” according to a staff report. “Architectural engineering services will be mostly utilized for projects within the Municipal Buildings and Facilities section of the CIP, which currently includes 14 active projects with a Total Estimated Cost of $66M, of which approximately $20M is currently funded.”

• A resolution to allow the City Council all of its subordinate bodies, and all of its non-profit corporation boards and their subordinate bodies, to meet remotely pursuant to the brown act. The City Council has to approve the resolution roughly every 30 days to continue meeting remotely.