City Council has approved a $15 million contract for 1,500 world-class parking meters. The company awarded the contract? ACS. We last heard of ACS as a red light camera contender, and in January, Metro chose ACS to come up with a new “smart card” fare system.
The Chronicle‘s Alexis Grant has today’s parking meter story:
The Houston City Council today approved a $15 million contract for 1,500 tech-savy parking meters that will allow motorists to pay using cell phones, credit cards and dollar bills, in addition to the traditional coins.
[snip]
The first 750 meters are expected to be working within a year, said Liliana Rambo, assistant director of parking management, who is managing the project.
ACS State & Local Solutions Inc. of New Jersey was chosen as the vendor.
[snip]
Council members voted unanimously to approve the contract, praising Rambo for using a transparent process and creating a project that will pay for itself through parking revenues.
“This is what taxpayers want… a project like this that is fiscally sound,” said Council member Adrian Garcia.
Does that mean the city’s $15 million investment will be reimbursed with parking meter profits? Houstonians can only hope it really will be a system that pays for itself.
And what does (temporarily only a) Councilwoman Carol Alvarado think?
“We can say that Houston now is on the cutting edge when it comes to parking,” said Council member Carol Alvarado.
It’s too bad she wasn’t interested in being on the cutting edge of management oversight in the Mayor Pro Tem’s office.
ANNE ADDS MORE: I’ve been thinking about Council’s praise for Liliana Rambo’s transparency. Were there city-issued press releases about this parking meter contract? Were there public meetings, besides today’s City Council meeting? Is our local media so inept that there really was all this transparency and we just missed it somehow? All I see is this press release issued today.
Maybe city officials have a different definition of transparency than I do.
UPDATE: This Houston Business Journal story says ACS will also install the wireless network the new world-class/cutting edge parking meters will require, and also includes information on progress in the mayor’s proposed city-wide wi-fi network:
City officials are currently being courted by several companies interested in providing a wireless overlay for Houston.
So far, 65 companies have expressed interest in taking part in the implementation of the network, says Richard Lewis, the City of Houston’s chief information officer.
“We were overjoyed to see the number of companies,” Lewis says of the initial pre-selection proceedings being conducted by the city.
That larger wireless network contract is expected to appear before Houston City Council for approval by year end.
BLOGVERSATION: If it ain’t broke, spend $10K for a new one (Matt Bramanti)
