The West Hollywood City Council extended several parking-related contracts during its Monday night meeting.
The city will pay $2 million per year for two more years to Serco, Inc. for parking enforcement services. Serco, which is based in Reston, Va., has had the contract with the city for the past 19 years. Parking tickets generate approximately $8 million of the city’s annual budget.
The city will pay $935,000 per year for two more years to Ampco System Parking to run the city-owned parking lots and parking decks. The Los Angeles-based Ampco has had the contract for the past 17 years.
The city will pay $188,000 to Beverly Hills to collect parking meter money for another year. The city began contracting with Beverly Hills for the service in 1996.
The city will pay $89,000 to Glendale for parking meter maintenance for another year. The city began contracting with Glendale for this service in 1995.
All these contracts were set to expire on June 30, the end of the fiscal year.
Oscar Delgado, the city’s director of public works, said it is easier to keep track of the various contracts by having them all expire at the end of the fiscal year.
Travis, that is rather shocking to hear, I hope you make some noise about this. i had a similar experience once with LA and then with Beverly Hills a few years ago when the person giving the citation was clearly lying but it’s rare that a person can “prove their innocence” and that is what it comes down to. the amount of tax money the city then spends on these arbitration hearings is obscene as they have to hire an independent agent every time. a lot of people are gaming the system. I agree with Todd Bianco, especially the Serco… Read more »
I tell you one thing, they have a new racket for parking tickets where those of us who live here are concerned… ticket first, worry about whether it is a valid citation later… much later. I have gotten four parking tickets in the last year, all of them invalid. I contest online for the round 1, automatically they refuse this, forcing you to go to the arbitration stage. All but one of my tickets was knocked out by going to arbitration at city hall. The one that I lost, I took all the way to Beverly Hills Supreme Court and… Read more »
It would sure be helpful to know the revenues associated with each lot compared to the cost to operate them. I detest Serco as do many others. For all the parking ticket revenue the city takes in, I’m sure they are pleased with the performance of the contractor. I wonder how well Serco treats its employees and I’d like to know how the number of tickets written figures into each officer’s evaluation. All these contracts should be put out to bid on a regular basis – and the RFPs should go out far in advance of the contract renewal dates… Read more »
Why are they extending contracts without putting them out for competitive bidding? Is the city overpaying for some of these services? We will never know the way this council works.