City Council
Staff Report
From: City Manager
Report Type: INFORMATION REPORTS
Lead Department: Administrative Services
Meeting Date: June 9, 2025
Report #:2503-4412
TITLE
Print Shop Status Report - 18-Month Update; CEQA Status – Not a Project
RECOMMENDATION
This is an informational report and no action is required.
BACKGROUND
On November 13, 2023, Council approved to keep the Print Shop operations in house and maintain current service levels1. The recommendation also included providing Council with a status update within 18 months, which is the purpose of this report.
The review in 2023 included a request for proposal (RFP) process that provided important information to inform the recommendation to keep print shop services in-house. The factors contributing to the recommendation included customer service, customer experience, personnel development, change management, timely delivery, and cost. Having an in-house print shop offers city departments personalized customer service and fast delivery of same day print jobs. While the inhouse print shop was not the least costly option reviewed in the RFP it offered the best turnaround times and customer experience at a reasonable cost that was considerably below the highest bid. Over the past year and a half, it has been shown that meeting customer needs for quick turn around and customer service overall has served the city well.
At the same time certain changes are expected that will impact the future ongoing service provision of the print shop. Chief among these is the planned outsourcing of utility bill printing.
This change will reduce the workload in the print shop by roughly 12% before the possibility of 1 Finance Committee, November 13, 2023 Recommendation to Maintain Current Service Delivery Model for Print and Mail Services
https://cityofpaloalto.primegov.com/api/compilemeetingattachmenthistory/historyattachment/?historyId=c4209 b4b-60da-4bae-b477-32db6dfef76d
increasing the workload with new opportunities after utility bill printing is fully outsourced. This is expected by late 2025. New opportunities may include keeping overflow jobs in-house rather than being sent out to vendors, and potentially expanded services such as printing posters, which would require financial investment in new machine(s).
In the past 18 months several improvements have been implemented in the print shop, and they are explained in the remaining staff report.
ANALYSIS
Staff has hired two full-time benefited Offset Equipment Operators who handle the printing and mailing services. With having permanent staff, updated equipment and new online forms, the print shop is making progress towards modernization. Our goal is to continue to make improvements and to provide excellent customer service as well as explore the possibility of offering new services. With the upcoming outsourcing of utility bill printing and expected continued cost pressures, staff will continue to evaluate the value of offering in-house print shop services with high customer service and quick turnaround versus outside alternatives and tradeoffs. Updates in the past 18 moths include process, equipment and facility improvements to aid in finishing print jobs and serving customers. Staff also updated our equipment with 2 new Xerox copiers VR280 (Vesant 280 Press) which is a color printer and DPS 120 (Nuvera 120 EA system) which prints in black and white with a print speed of 120 pages per minute.
On the workload side in the past six months, Print Shop staff have mailed out 208,273 pieces of mail. This includes 120,204 utility bills, 30,317 letters, 52,805 postcards, and 4,947 packages.
Their print jobs range from basic copies, brochures, postcards, flyers, posters, note pads, bookmarks, and training manuals. Below you will find Table 1 with the number of print job requests by each department since the new intake and tracking form has been in place.
Following that is Table 2 with the estimated distribution of time across the different workload categories.
Table #1 Printing Jobs
Print Jobs by Department (6 Months Ending April 2025)
Department # Jobs
Planning 181
Children's Theatre 88
Public Works 74
Community Services 66
Development Services 30
City Manager's Office 27
Utilities 25
Art Center 22
Revenue Collections 22
Police 18
Table #1 Printing Jobs
Print Jobs by Department (6 Months Ending April 2025)
Department # Jobs
Office of Transportation 16
Library 13
Mitchell Park Community Center 9
Customer Service 8
Office of Emergency Services 8
Animal Control 4
City Clerk's Office (does not include Council packets) 4 Office of Sustainability 4
Human Resources 3
ASD 2
Junior Museum 2
Airport 1
Facilities 1
Total 628
Table #2 Printing and Mailing Jobs
Work Performed (6 months ending April 2025)
Type # Jobs
Items Mailed 88,069
Utility Bills Mailed 120,204
Print Jobs - In House 653
Print Jobs Sent Out (external vendor) 66
Council Packets 292
Staff plans to begin promoting the services the print shop can do in-house to City Staff. We will also investigate what jobs the departments are currently outsourcing and how we can bring them back in-house. This could open an opportunity to expand print shop services to other areas such as poster printing and envelopes, which require additional financial investments in equipment or machine(s).
FISCAL/RESOURCE IMPACT
This is an information report and does not have a fiscal impact. The Print Shop budget of approximately $1.7 million for the FY2025 Adopted Budget and FY 2026 Proposed Budget are summarized in table 3 below.
Table #3 Printing and Mailing
Expenses and Revenues
FY 2025
Adopted
FY 2026
Proposed
Expenses /Expenditures $1,679,209 $1,660,237
Salary and Benefits $298,047 $268,155
Allocated Charges $364,962 $361,582
Contract Services $356,000 $366,800
General Expenses $252,900 $252,900
Rents and Leases $232,300 $235,800
Supplies and Materials $175,000 $175,000
Revenues / Funding Source $1,659,000 $1,543,440
Charges to Other Funds $1,654,000 $1,528,550
Operating Transfers-In $10,000
Return on Investments $5,100 $4,890
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
Print shop staff work closely with staff in city departments to receive and process print job requests. City staff have a new opportunity to provide feedback via a survey at the completion of print jobs. The responses received since the survey was implemented have been positive.
Feedback has been received from the Community Services Department, Administrative Service Department, Development Center and the City Manager’s Office.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This is item is not a project as defined by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because the report is for informational purposes only with no action required by the Council.
ATTACHMENTS
None.
APPROVED BY:
Lauren Lai, Administrative Services Director