City Council
Staff Report
From: City Manager
Report Type: CONSENT CALENDAR
Lead Department: Transportation
Meeting Date: June 16, 2025
Report #:2506-4781
TITLE
Approval of Contract Amendment No. 4 to Contract Number C19171363 with Professional Account Management LLC, dba Duncan Solutions, to Extend the Contract for one year to June 30, 2026, and to Adjust Billing Rates, Without an Increase to Compensation, for a Not -to- Exceed Amount of $767,000 for Parking Permitting and Citation Management Services; CEQA Status -- Not a Project.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the City Council approve and authorize the City Manager or designee to execute Contract Amendment No.4 to Contract No. C19171363 with Professional Account Management LLC, dba Duncan Solutions, to extend the contract term for an additional year through June 30, 2026 and adjust billing rates, without an increase to Compensation.
Not To Exceed (NTE) amount of $767,000.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This action is part of a phased process to potentially transition to a new permit management and citations service provider over the course of the next fiscal year, to streamline the management of the City parking programs. The Office of Transportation (OOT), in coordination with the Administrative Service Department, the City Clerk’s Office, and the Police Department (PAPD), have selected a new parking permit and citation management service provider. That contract approval is currently scheduled to come to Council for approval in August 2025. The new service provider will begin to support the administration of parking permit programs, first in the commercial districts (California Avenue and University Avenue, and then the remaining programs), and to facilitate parking citation processing and collection. The attached amendment with Duncan Solutions extends their term for the current contract to support OOT administration of several Residential Preferential Parking programs while the new service provider takes on program support and administration over the course of the new fiscal year.
BACKGROUND
The City of Palo Alto has instituted an approach to manage parking that exempts select motorists from short-term parking restrictions in residential neighborhoods and the commercial cores (on- and off-street parking). There are six (6) Residential Preferential Parking (RPP) districts where residents are eligible to obtain parking permits. Businesses and/or employees located within some of these RPP districts as well as the two (2) commercial districts around University Avenue and California Avenue are eligible to obtain a limited number of permits. Across the eight (8) parking programs there are variations on items such as the number of vehicles per permit, fee levels, duration, renewal dates, eligibility, and limits. In addition to permit management, the City issues and processes citations for violations of the parking regulations.
The issuance of parking permits and the issuance and processing of parking citations are handled by a combination of City contractors and City staff and have evolved as permit parking programs have expanded and evolved over time. A new contractor will soon begin to continue the work of previous City contracted service providers to improve efficiencies and customer experience for permit purchasers. The new service provider will build a custom parking permit and citation processing platform and provide support and system maintenance for a period of five years. More details will be provided in the staff report for contract approval in August 2025.
Duncan contract (C19171363) and amendments history:
Original Contract: Effective 3/31/2019 to 3/31/2024 (5 years) NTE of $627,0005 (City Council meeting 6/24/2019 SR 10241)1
Amendment #1: Effective 6/27/2019 - no term change; NTE increased $140,000 for ALPR added to vehicles (City Council meeting 2/22/2021 SR 11492)2
Amendment #2: NTE to remain at $767,000; term extended to 3/31/2024 (City Council meeting 4/1/2024)3
Amendment #3: NTE to remain at $767,000; term extended to 6/30/2025 (See Attachment B) 1 City Council, June 24, 2019, Agenda Items #5, SR #10241 https://cityofpaloalto.primegov.com/Public/CompiledDocument?meetingTemplateId=2713&compileOutputType= 1 2 City Council, February 22, 2021, Agenda Item #9, SR#11492 https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/files/assets/public/v/2/agendas-minutes-reports/reports/city-manager-reports- cmrs/year-archive/2021/id-11492.pdf
3 City Council, April 1, 2024, Agenda Item #6, SR#2402-2689 https://cityofpaloalto.primegov.com/api/compilemeetingattachmenthistory/historyattachment/?historyId=29778 79d-109f-458e-b9e5-1164e4c2d184
The attached Amendment #4 with Duncan Solutions extends their term to support OOT administration of several Residential Preferential Parking programs while the new selected service provider takes on program support and administration over the course of the new fiscal year, streamlining management of services in a phased approach, and maintaining continuity of service for residents. Not approving the extensions would jeopardize the City’s ability to enforce its parking polices and issue parking citations.
This original contract was priced just before the Covid-19 pandemic and the City pays on a per transaction or fulfilment basis. The shift to more remote and hybrid work during the pandemic has been associated with lower than anticipated parking utilization, significantly lower rates of employee permits sold, and fewer than anticipated citations issued, which has allowed the contract amount to stretch over a longer time period.
ANALYSIS
The City has an existing contract. The original agreement was approved by the Council on June 24, 2019. The contract was awarded via an RFP. Amendment No, 1 was approved by the Council to increase compensation, Amendment no. 2 was approved by Council to extend the term for one year and Amendment 3 was issued to extend the term for six months per PAMC 2.30. 290(b1). The attached one-year contract extension, through June 30, 2026, allows City staff to transition parking programs to a newly selected service provider in a phased approach. By extending the contract, staff would have sufficient time to implement updates to the City’s parking programs, including enhanced coordination on services offered to the community, developing new and more efficient parking enforcement strategies, and determining operational needs across programs, and implementing operations in a phased approach to preserve continuity of services for constituents. These customer facing system transitions benefit from a phased approach and redundancy between systems.
FISCAL/RESOURCE IMPACT
Apart from the contract end date being updated to June 30, 2026, other contract terms and conditions remain unchanged. Funding for this contract has been encumbered in prior years, and since the Not to Exceed amount remains at $767,000, sufficient funding is available for this contract; no additional budgetary action is required. Staff will return to the City Council in August 2025 to recommend a contract for a new parking permit and citation management service provider.
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
This contract was reviewed and coordinated with internal departments including legal, procurement, and financial functions to ensure alignment with City policies and procedures.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
Adoption of this amendment is not a project under CEQA.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A: Duncan, Contract C19171363A Amendment No. 4 APPROVED BY:
Ria Hutabarat Lo, Chief Transportation Official