April 29, 2025
Agenda Item No. 15
TO:
HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL
FROM:
Jason Al-Imam, Finance Director/Treasurer - 949-644-3126, [email protected] PREPARED BY:
Jessica Kan, Revenue Manager - 949-644-3153,
[email protected]
TITLE:
Amendment No. One to the Professional Services Agreement with Infosend, Inc. for Printing, Mailing and Online Presentment and Authorization to Execute Documents for Credit-Card Pass-Through Fees ABSTRACT:
Staff recommends an amendment to the existing contract with Infosend, Inc. to increase the contract's not-to-exceed amount by $182,000 to accommodate the additional printing and mailing costs resulting from the City of Newport Beach’s transition from bi-monthly to monthly utility billing. Additionally, staff is seeking authorization for the city manager and/or her designee to execute necessary documents with merchant services providers to implement pass-through credit card fees for utility payments.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
a) Determine this action is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Sections 15060(c)(2) and 15060(c)(3) of the CEQA Guidelines because this action will not result in a physical change to the environment, directly or indirectly; b) Approve Amendment No. One to the Professional Services Agreement with Infosend, Inc. for Document Printing, Mailing Services and Online Presentment; and c) Authorize the City Manager and/or her designee to execute documents with the merchant service providers to implement pass-through credit card fees for utility payments.
DISCUSSION:
For more than 10 years, the City has contracted with InfoSend for printing, mailing, email invoicing, online presentment, and payment services for utility bills and other City services. Currently, the City bills for water, sewer, business licenses, alarms, and other services. The majority of these billings are for utilities, covering approximately 26,000 accounts.
Historically, these accounts were billed bi-monthly, with half of the accounts billed each month. With the transition to monthly billing, the number of utility invoices processed will increase to 26,000 every month.
The City’s current agreement with InfoSend, approved by the City Council for a not-to-exceed amount of $703,300, was based on a bi-monthly billing cycle. Due to the transition to monthly billing, additional costs for printing, mailing and online presentment services are necessary. Staff recommends increasing the not-to-exceed contract amount by $182,000, bringing the total to $885,300 for the remaining term of the contract, which expires on December 31, 2025.
Additionally, the City plans to implement pass-through credit card fees for utility payments. This initiative would allow the City to recover the costs of processing credit card payments by passing the fees directly to those customers who pay by credit card. Staff is requesting City Council authorization for the city manager and/or her designee to execute the necessary documents with merchant services providers to facilitate this process. For utility payments, merchant services are primarily provided by PACE, i3 Verticals, and J.P. Morgan Chase.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The $182,000 increase in the not-to-exceed contract amount will cover additional costs for printing, mailing and online presentment through December 2025, resulting from the transition from bi-monthly to monthly billing. Funding for the transition to monthly billing was included in the FY 2024-25 Adopted Budget; therefore, no budget amendment is required. The contract is primarily funded by the General Fund and the Water Fund, with the majority of utility billing costs paid from the Water Fund.
Additionally, the implementation of pass-through credit card fees for utility payments will result in cost savings. These savings will be credited to the respective funds that were originally charged the fees, with the majority credited to the Water Fund. For example, in FY 2024-25, the City budgeted $500,000 for credit card fees in the Water Fund. With the new pass-through model, these funds will now become savings to the Water Fund.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW:
Staff recommends the City Council find this action is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Sections 15060(c)(2) (the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment) and 15060(c)(3) (the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378) of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, because it has no potential for resulting in physical change to the environment, directly or indirectly.
NOTICING:
The agenda item has been noticed according to the Brown Act (72 hours in advance of the meeting at which the City Council considers the item).
ATTACHMENTS:
Attachment A – Amendment No. One
Attachment B – i3 Verticals Application for Merchant Account and Agreement Attachment C – PACE Merchant Account and Agreement – Credit Card Services 15-3
15-1
Amendment No. One to the Agreement with Infosend, Inc. for Printing, Mailing and Online Presentment and Authorization to execute documents for credit-card pass-through fees
April 29, 2025
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