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SR-01-14-2014-3PCity Council Meeting: January 14, 2014 Agenda Item: P To: Mayor and City Council From: Gigi Decavalles- Hughes, Director of Finance Subject: Purchase New Parking Access and Revenue Control System Recommended Action Staff recommends that City Council authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute a contract with DataPark USA Inc., a Delaware -based company, in an amount not to exceed $5,000,000 for the purchase, installation, and up to ten years of maintenance of the Parking Access and Revenue Control System with License Plate Recognition (LPR) for the downtown parking structures, Main Library parking structure, Civic Center parking facilities, Ken Edwards Center, and Pier Deck parking lot, with future year maintenance funding contingent on Council approval. Executive Summary The Parking Access and Revenue Control System ( PARCS) replacement project is one of the approved Capital Improvement Projects for fiscal year 2013/14. As the result of a competitive procurement process, DataPark USA Inc. is recommended as the best bidder to provide the new PARCS system. The contract would include purchase and installation of new parking equipment for 14 parking facilities for an amount not to exceed $3,400,000, and provide ongoing maintenance service for seven years with an option to extend for three additional years for a total ten -year amount not to exceed $5,000,000. An agreement to cover up to 10 years of maintenance is recommended as the average life expectancy of parking equipment is seven to ten years. Background The City first installed the current Skidata PARCS equipment 13 years ago in seven downtown parking structures. Since then, five additional facilities have been added, as well as 37 pay —on -foot machines to fully automate the parking system. This has provided for the full automation of 13 facilities in Downtown and the Civic Center. The average lifespan of parking equipment is seven to ten years. 1 The centralized parking system is operated by one system control panel located in Downtown Parking Structure 5 and processes approximately nine million transactions annually. The use of the centralized parking system provides Parking Operations staff the ability to consolidate reporting and revenue control functions and implement related operations. The current PARCS in the City's gated parking facilities has outlived its lifespan and experiences frequent operating difficulties. It needs replacement and infrastructure upgrades. Most recently, the SkiData system was offline for several hours on Saturday, December 28 and Monday, December 31 which resulted in significantly increased staffing cost, lost revenue and a negative customer experience through delays and increased traffic. In October 2012, staff received a letter from Sentry Control, the City's current PARCS service provider, outlining a series of serious deficiencies in the City's PARCS that included a series of recommended changes and upgrades to the network, replacing servers, and other hardware and software changes needed to stabilize the system and ensure credit card security standards are met (Attachment A). On November 2, 2012, the City received a notice of the end of support for a significant portion of the City's current system, including the inability to have availability of parts for certain components (Attachment B). The City is also operating on Version 19 of the software and cannot upgrade to the current Version 23 because the existing equipment is not compatible with the current software or future software upgrades that would enhance PC[ (credit card compliance) and PA/DSS (payment application and data security standards). The combination of obsolete equipment and outdated software that cannot be upgraded resulted in the City reviewing its current parking equipment and submitting a Capital Improvement Program (CIP) funding request for FY 2012 -13. That request was not funded. During FY 2012/13, the PARCS equipment continued to experience increased problems. The increased incidents of failure and the end of support for a portion of the 2 City's equipment resulted in the Council authorization of CIP funding for new or upgraded equipment as part of the FY 2013 -14 CIP budget. Upon approval of the Capital Improvement Project of replacing the PARCS equipment, the City issued a Request of Proposals in May 2013. A vendor was recommended by the selection committee. After the recommendation of the award became public, Sentry Control informed Council that one of the selection committee members from LA DOT has a family member employed by the selected vendor. In order to retain highest procurement objectivity and integrity, Council rejected all proposals and directed staff to complete a new bidding process on August 27 2013. Following rejection of the bids, the City contracted with Walker Parking Consultants to assist with the Request for Proposals process. In October 2013, the City issued a new RFP that included additional technical specifications and sought additional details related to proposer's finances and customer service standards. The original selection committee was dismissed and replaced by a new selection committee with new representatives from the Information System and Finance Departments. The committee also included a representative from Macerich, the City of West Hollywood, and Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. All selection committee members disclosed that they had no conflicts of interest. Parking Structure 6 opened to the public on December 19, 2013. In order to avoid any delay of the operation, the City issued a Request for Quotes in September 2013 for temporary leasing of a standalone PARC System for the new facility. The City received quotes from DataPark and WPS as well as a "No Bid" form from Sentry Systems. DataPark was selected based on providing the lowest cost to meet all required specifications. The system was delivered and installed successfully with short notice supporting the grand opening of Parking Structure 6. 3 Discussion Equipment failure negatively affects the customer's parking experience and causes significant lost revenue and increased staffing costs. Failure causes delays at the exits, which create traffic congestion and increased emissions from vehicles. In situations when equipment fails, the parking operator needs to deploy additional staff to manually facilitate the exit process, which results in increased labor costs. The replacement PARCS equipment would be able to perform reliably, reducing delays. It would also enable additional functions and reporting capabilities, such as developing an integrated value pass with the City's transit system. The replacement PARCS equipment would enhance the overall parking experience. To further enhance the current parking program, staff also recommends including all gated parking facilities, including the Pier Deck parking lot, the new Parking Structure 6, and Ken Edwards Center into the PARCS. With these additional facilities, the new system is anticipated to handle over 11 million transactions annually. Vendor Selection On August 27, 2013, Council directed staff to complete a new procurement process. The City retained the Services of Walker Parking Consultants to provide technical review of the RFP and to develop tools to evaluate the responses. On October 17, 2013, the City issued a new RFP via the City's online bidding site in accordance with the City Charter and Municipal Code provision that require competitive bidding for this project. During the new procurement process, more information was required from the bidders, such as three years of financial data and additional information on maintenance service levels. A new selection committee comprised of staff from the Finance and Information System Departments, City of West Hollywood Parking Operations, Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. and Macerich reviewed all four proposals received. Walker Parking Consultants also reviewed all the proposals and provided neutral comments without any recommendations for the selection committee. The selection committee met twice and had extensive discussions on all evaluation criteria, including but not limited to pricing, proposed solutions, capacity of service 12 performance, ongoing operating costs, financial and inventory resources, and system compliance levels. Only two companies proposed a License Plate Recognition (LPR) system option in their proposals and included it in their pricing. Below is a 7- and 10- year total cost (installation and maintenance) comparison of all four proposals: Company DataPark (with LPR system) WPS (with LPR system) Sentry (without LPR system) Zeag (without LPR system) 7 Year Cost 10 Year Cost $4,315,777 $4,951,616 $3,950,499 $4,655,623 $3,994,894 $4,532,914 $4,752,029 $5,464,641 Although not the lowest bidder, the selection committee recommends DataPark USA Inc. as the best bidder because they complied with all requested items in the RFP offering the best purchase and installation costs. DataPark also demonstrated a proven License Plate Recognition (LPR) and transit keycards interface solution that is currently performing in high volume domestic locations. Specifically, • DataPark has the strongest financial and inventory resources for the project. • DataPark has solutions that comply with all the RFP requested items. • Information Systems Department strongly suggested retaining a Windows - based operating system that DataPark provides. It will benefit the operation, maintenance support and data processing. • DataPark provided the best report samples. • DataPark proposed the most comprehensive solution to minimize vehicles tailgating out of structures to avoid payment including license plate recognition technology and a quicker gate system. • DataPark has proven that they can interface with the City's merchant account processing credit card transactions without any gateway costs. The Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance system has been certified by the City's merchant account provider and currently processes Parking Structure 6's credit card transactions without utilizing a third party gateway which currently 5 costs the City approximately $80,000 per year. This cost is paid under a separate contract. • DataPark has the lowest purchase and installation price. The pricing proposal from DataPark is also the most detailed and itemized. All components were listed and broken down by location. • DataPark has integrated solutions in multiple domestic locations with parking keycard solutions. Their system already has a solution developed to support the Big Blue Bus fare interface development. • DataPark is the only company that provided detailed information for how to accommodate alternative sized gate arms with detailed pricing and specifications. • DataPark has committed to the 24 -hour availability with four -hour response time and next day repair requirement. • DataPark's operating system has accounting and monthly parking management functions included as part of its features. Based on these factors, the selection committee recommended DataPark USA as the best bidder. This recommendation was ranked consistently by all five selection committee members. The results of the evaluation (based on a maximum average score of 10) for all four companies were: DataPark 8.19 WPS IJELI Sentry 6.53 Zeag 6.28 h Financial Impacts & Budget Actions The contract to be awarded to DataPark USA Inc. is for an amount not to exceed $5,000,000. Funds in the amount of $3,200,000 are included in the FY 2013 -14 Capital Improvement Program budget in account C010715.589000 (Parking Access and Revenue Control System) and $400,000 budget in account C014049.589000 (Parking Structure 6 Construction). Funds in the amount of $200,000 for FY 2014 -15 expenses are included in the FY 2014 -15 budgets in account 01225.555010. Future year funding is contingent on Council budget approval. No maintenance or service costs are anticipated during the first two years. Prepared by: Frank Ching, Parking Administrator Approved: Forwarded to Council: Gigi Decavalles- Hughes Rod Gould Director of Finance City Manager Attachments: A. October 10, 2012 Letter from Sentry Control Systems B. November 2, 2012 Notice of SKIDATA change in software support 7 "JENMRY 4`; tP fa Y, 1d 7 L b 11,; T .R: Ibi +, Exhibit "A" - Page 1 of 3 October 10, 2012 Mr. Frank Ching CITY OF SANTA MONICA 1717 4th Street #105 Santa Monica, CA 90401 Dear Mr. Ching: IIII 24 66 62 ill Pif! NUU Nf fi ti! R The purpose of this letter is to draw your attention to the concerns Sentry Control Systems has regarding your Parking and Revenue Control System ( PARCS). Your PARCS system has increased in size over the last few years with the addition of new structures and POF machines. This increase in size has created an additional demand for network bandwidth. The existing network infrastructure, which our system depends on, has become unstable and creates regular interruption of the system's ability to collect revenue. In addition to the network related issues, your servers and process PCs are no longer up to the task of supporting your growing database. The problems you are experiencing today with system speed, reporting ability and of0ine events are only going to increase as time goes on. The eventual failure of the system's ability to collect revenue will occur. The problems we are seeing today are the warning signs of this imminent failure. Moreover, you should be aware of an additional concern regarding the new rules and regulations associated with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) and the Payment Application Data Security Standard ( PADSS). These requirements change over time. What this means is that you, as the merchant, must meet the new requirements on your own. There is a new version of the SKIDATA application that is validated per the most recent standard. Addressing the server and process PC issue, mentioned above, allows us to install this new version of software and address the new PADSS requirements. For a better understanding of this, we recommend you engage Sentry, or your Parking Operator, to hire a Qualified Security Assessor on your behalf. This will facilitate a better understanding of your risk and exposure. There are many aspects to PADSS that are completely outside of the PARCS. The two items mentioned above represent the most acute issues we are facing. We strongly encourage you to take action immediately. Sentry is capable of providing, all or part of, the resolution and will support the city in however it chooses to proceed. Please see below for our recommendations to address these items. 66110dessa Ave Van Nuys 0A 91406 P:800.246.6062 F:816.786.2910 www.sentrycontrol.com Hm Exhibit "A" - Page 2 of 3 The recommended changes to the network include replacing and recertifying the network cabling in structures 1 -6 and replacing the network switches in the parking booths. It is also our understanding that the Santa Monica IT department has provided a list of specific items that need to be changed along with a proposal for the changes. We highly recommend you take these recommendations from the IT department seriously and proceed as soon as possible with the upgrade. This will result in a marketable improvement in the overall stability of the SKIDATA system and support today's activity, as well as the future's. The network infrastructure should be able to support a 1 Gigabyte per second network. For PCI /PADSS reasons and ease of troubleshooting, we are recommending as much logical and physical separation of these networks as possible. 2. REPLACING PC'S & SERVERS WITH OEM COMPUTERS The plan for the City of Santa Monica's process PCs and servers is to take advantage of VMware technology. We use this as our standard on large locations, such as John Wayne Airport or the City of Beverly Hills, and would recommend this for the City of Santa Monica. This technology, installed on a Hewlett Packard DL380 G7 server, will provide the necessary processing power for smooth uninterrupted operation. In addition, we would need to change the process PCs in the field to the Dell XE. These changes provide an excellent foundation for efficient and effective revenue collection, increased transaction processing speeds, long term data retention and improved customer service —all of this can be purchased and installed by Sentry or your IT department. 3. PCI /PADSS COMPLIANCY Once these critical updates to the system are complete, we will be able to update the PARCS software with the current version that is validated with the most recent PCI /PADSS standards. In addition to complying with the new data security standards, the current version has many new features that will enhance the customer experience, provide tighter revenue control and increased functionality. 6611 Odessa Ave Van Nuys CA 91406 P: 800.248.0662 F: 818.786.2910 www.sentrycontrol.com -4- CON` RCr_ evs-rcmw 800 246 66 2 Exhibit "A " - Page 3 of MAIN NUtkerR t Following the completion of these three very important upgrades above, it leaves only one outstanding upgrade beyond that to completely overhaul your SKIDATA system and leave you without the need to perform any further upgrades for some time. This upgrade would involve replacing the legacy -based encoding mechanisms (Coder 450) in all of your ticket handling devices to the latest and current encoding mechanisms (Coder 460) — SKIDATA introduced the 460, and discontinued supplying the 450 in 2007. The Coder 460 marked a dramatic improvement in efficiency and reliability versus its predecessor. Sentry has installed over 100 SKIDATA locations with the Coder 460 since 2007. The availability of parts is dwindling on the 450 product. For the time being, parts can still be repaired. We have received notice from the manufacture that the coder 450 will no longer be supported in any fashion as of May 2013. There may be some parts available beyond this date, but, it is the intent of the manufacturer to be completely out of old /new stock by this date. It has become apparent that a proactive approach is now needed to mitigate any possible catastrophe. The relationship between Sentry, the City of Santa Monica and your Operator will continue to be of the utmost importance to us, and we will continue to maintain the equipment as best we can. We sincerely appreciate your business and look forward to any questions or concerns you may have. Sincerely, Lester Mascon VP of Operations 6611 O6=Ave Van Nuys CA 91406 P:800.246.6662 F:818.786.2910 www.sentrycontrol.com -5- From: " Shurtleff, Seth" <SShurtleff(aD.PARKING.COM> Date: November 2, 2012, 8:29:48 AM PDT To: "Mansoor, Muhammad" <MMansoor(aPARKING.COM >, "Smigel, Andrew" <ASmigel PARKING.COM >, "Roesler, Robb" <RRoeslerC7a,PARKING.COM >, "Macerato, Yvette" <YMacerato(c7PARKING.COM >, "Rennella, Ernesto" <ERennellPARKING.COM >, "Alvarez, Augusto" <AAlvarezfflPARKING.COM> Subject: Fwd: Important information to note about SKIDATA locations FYI Seth Shurtleff VP -LA Region C- 617.417.0170 E- sshurtleff0markina.com Begin forwarded message: From: "Stone, Jason" <J5tone(a)PARKING.COM> Date: November 2, 2012, 7:50:20 AM PDT To: EDL_Skidata Facilities <EDL SkidataFacilities (cDPARKING.COM> Cc: *EDL_Regional_Managers <EDL Regional Managers(aPARKING.COM> Subject: Important information to note about SKIDATA locations To ALL Managers of SKIDATA locations: Skidata has notified us, and your local vendors, of some changes in software support and end of life for certain parts of their system in the coming months. The purpose of this email is to communicate these changes with you so you can begin planning to address these necessary changes where needed, with your local service providers. 1. Parking System prior to R23 / V6 will only work on the Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 platforms. This means that after April 8, 2014 — these versions of the parking system running on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 will no longer be running in a PC] compliant manner as the Operating System will no longer be supported. You will need to work with your local service provider to plan to upgrade your systems that are running a version older than this, prior to the April 2014 date. I realize that this is still a year and a half away, but we don't want to wait until the last minute for budget planning purposes, so please get with your local vendor soon, to get appropriate pricing, so you may budget appropriately for this required upgrade should your system be running a version prior to R23 / V6. 2. End of support for the coder 450's is March 31, 2013 which is only 6 months from now. Please be aware that as we approach this date SKIDATA anticipates challenges and changes relative to the supply demands. After 31 March 2013: No Parts / spare parts supply, No Repair services, No Ticket Supplier qualification process, No Product Support for the coder 450. This means that if your SKIDATA location operates with a coder 450, you need to make plans NOWto replace this through your local service provider, in hopes of avoiding system failures without the ability to repair. Your local service provider may have already communicated with you about these changes. If they have not, please don't wait for them to approach you about these necessary upgrades, especially #2 above, as well as planning for #1 above. Thank you for your prompt attention to these matters, and as always, please let me know if you have any questions. Jason Stone - Director of Field Operations 615- 850 -6336 (0) 615- 308- 4639(C) jstone@parkina.com Legal Notice: This message is intended for the addressees) only and, unless expressly stated otherwise, is confidential and may be privileged. If you are not an addressee, (i) please inform the sender immediately and permanently delete and destroy the original and any copies or printouts of this message, and (ii) be advised that any disclosure, copying or use of the information in this message is unauthorized and may be unlawful. Reference: Contract No. 9860 (CCS)