DEPARTMENT
Business Services
AGENDA NO.
10b
MEETING DATE
December 13, 2022
APPROVAL:
COMMISSION
SECRETARY
Donna Hood
AGENDA ITEM
Public Utilities Commission
City and County of San Francisco
Professional Services Amend: Consent Calendar
Project Manager: Deidre Andrus
Approve Amendment No. 1 to Contract No. PRO.0067, Automatic Bill Payment Enrollment Services
Summary of
Proposed
Commission Action:
Approve Amendment No. 1 to Contract No. PRO.0067, Automatic Bill Enrollment Services, with STOP Processing Center , Inc., to provide ongoing processing/ enrollment services for San Francisco Public Utilities Commission water and wastewater customers who want their bills paid through an automatic bill payment service ; and authorize the General Manager to execute an amendment extending the term of the contract up to four years, for a total contract duration of nine years, with no change to the contract amount.
Background: San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has a long history of promoting automatic bill payments for c ustomers. On April 15, 2000, San Francisco Public Util ities Commission ( SFPUC), the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco , and STOP Processing Center entered into a contract to participate in the Northern California Automatic Bill Payment Program that promotes automatic bill payment using Automated Clearing House debits. The participating biller s included:
City of Livermore Municipal Water Services, City of Mountain View Utilities, City of Napa, C ity of Stockton, City of Sunnyvale, East Bay Municipal Utility District, P acific Gas & Electric, and Eastern Municipal Water District . The joint enro llment program allows a customer to enroll to m ultiple billers using one form or one -time online enrollment process, which is processed by the STOP Processing Center. For fiscal year 2021-22, SFPUC received 269,985 payments through the Automatic Bill Payment program for a total of $70,322,528.
Description of Scope STOP Processing Center pro vides automated services to support a Agreement: PRO.0067 Automatic Bill Payment Enrollment Services Commission Meeting Date: December 13, 2022
of Services: centralized operation for handling one time data entry and internet capture of Direct Payment enrollments, including printing of enrollment forms. The s ystem stores the information in a relational database which is accessible to participating billers who retrieve their enrollments from our website.
In accordance with the SF PUC Rules and R egulations and the Automatic B ill Payment Processing Center Contract , STOP Processing Center provides the following services:
- The directpaymentplan.com website for promotion of
direct payment enrollment;
- Email confirmations to customers upon completion of their website enrollment;
- Routing and transit number editing and crossover;
- On-going contact regarding incorrect or missing
enrollment information;
- Biller number format editing and notation;
- Secure email communications between billers and Stop
Processing Center;
- Access to the stopprocessing.com website for securely downloading enrollments;
- Password protection and data encryption;
- Formatted display of enrollments for review & correction; - Simplified reports used for biller system data entry (new enrollments);
- Enrollment record retention (paper and electronic);
- Enrollment error resolution;
- Exporting capabilities to biller systems (available in multiple formats);
- Catch and redirect enrollments that customers mislabeled to the wrong biller;
- Support for setup and initialization of enrollment retrieval process;
- Paper form opening and preparing paper enrollments for data capture;
- Forward customer bill payments to billers that were
received with enrollments;
- Retrieval and email or fax delivery of enrollments
requested by billers for special inquires;
- Twelve-month enrollment results by biller on the
stopprocessing.com website; and
- Resolve problems and respond to questions emailed from customers related to enrollment on our website,
www.directpaymentplan.com.
Cost of Service to SFPUC:
1. Internet Web Access Monthly Fee: $28.00
2. The following costs is assessed per enrollment either through the internet or paper enrollment process biller signups:
Agreement: PRO.0067 Automatic Bill Payment Enrollment Services Commission Meeting Date: December 13, 2022
Header Record per item $.28
Cost per Signup (1 Line) $.98 + $.28 header
Cost per Signup (2 Lines) $.98 /2 + $.28 header
Cost per Signup (3 Lines) $.98 /3 + $.28 header
Cost per Signup (4 Lines) $.98 /4 + $.28 header
Cost per Signup (5 Lines) $.98 /5 + $.28 header
Cost per Signup (6 Lines) $.98 /6 + $.28 header
Cost per Signup (7 Lines) $.98 /7 + $.28 header
The cost per signup is dependent upon the number of signups per enrollment form to be divided into the current cost per signup plus the header record cost per item.
Cost of Service to Customer:
There is no cost to the customer for automatic bill payment option.
Changes to the Contract under Amendments:
Amendment No. 1: is being requested to extend the contract duration by four years , so STOP Processi ng Center can continue to process/enroll SFPUC customers for automatic bill payment s ervice, for a t otal co ntract durati on of nine years, with no change to the contract amount.
Result of Inaction: A del ay in amending this contract would prevent SFPUC customers from having the option to enroll in the automatic bill payment service program.
Budget, Funding and
Costs:
Funding: Customer Services Operating Budget
Original Not-To-Exceed Amount: $50,000
Amendment No. 1 Amount: $0
Total Not-To-Exceed Amount: $50,000
Schedule: Original Duration: Five years
Amendment No. 1 Duration: Four years
Total Duration: Nine years
Recommendation: SFPUC staff recommends that the Commission adopt the attached resolution.
PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
City and County of San Francisco
RESOLUTION NO.
WHEREAS, The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) offers its customers the option of paying bills through an Automatic Bill Payment Program, which requires the SFPUC to engage in the Northern California Automatic Bill Payment Program that promotes automatic bill payment using Automated Clearing House deb its through a central processing service; and
WHEREAS, On November 16, 2017, the General Manager awarded professional services Contract No. PRO.0067, Automatic Bill Payment E nrollment Service, to STOP Processing Center, Inc., to provide ongoing processing/enrollment services, in an amount not-to-exceed $50,000, and with a duration of five years; and
WHEREAS, Amendment No. 1 is being requested to extend the contract term b y four years, for a total contract duration of nine years, with no change to the contract amount; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That this Commission hereby approves Amendment No. 1 to Contract No.
PRO.0067, Automatic Bill Payment Enrollment Services , with STOP Processing Center, Inc., to continue to provide ongoi ng processing/enrollment services to S FPUC water and was tewater customers who wish to participate in the Automatic Bill Payment prog ram, and authorizes the General Manager to execute Amendment No. 1, extending the contract by four years, for a t otal contract duration of nine years, with no change to the contract amount.
I hereby certify that the foregoing resolution was adopted by the Public Utilities Commission at its meeting of December 13, 2022.
Secretary, Public Utilities Commission