The Municipal Services Committee met 01/22/2024. They spent 20 minutes, half the meeting, discussing the request to approve a single source $57,000 contract with Star Protection and Patrol to provide security services for 8 hours a day 5 days a week in the downtown parking ramps for 2024.
Star has provided limited security services in the past, currently consisting of 2 hours a day; however, city staff believes that recent incidence of vandalism and other “unauthorized” behavior taking place in the ramps warrants increasing the amount of patrol hours within the ramp and would like to move to a contract that has Star patrolling the city’s three parking ramps from 11:30PM to 7:30AM 5 days a week.
The committee voted unanimously to approve the request.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion to download:
City staff believed the contract was necessary because of the increase of illicit behavior in the parking ramps (an increase that Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) understood to be “very large.”) People are loitering in the ramps, committing acts of vandalism, and going to the bathroom in the ramps. Additionally, one of the elevators had needed to be fixed due to a fire of some sort.
These issues were causing issues with city employees, and although it was not clearly stated the employees had quit over them, Public Works Deputy Director Pete Neuberger did suggest that there were concerns about being able to retain employees, and he mentioned that, in addition to the contract with Star, city staff would be coming back to the committee with a request to hire a contractor to provide cleaning services in the ramps “in the interest of providing conditions that promote staff retention.”
Alderperson Van Zeeland asked if why there had been “a very large increase” in this type of activity in the ramp.
Director of Public Works Danielle Block responded, “I don’t think any one of us has an answer for why. I think that’s a multifaceted problem or issue. We’re focused on providing the tools necessary to the parking utility so customers, users have the best experience possible, which kind of folds into all the initiatives we want to roll into the parking utility in improving that experience, bringing people to the parking ramps, and we have to make it, number one, first a place that people do want to utilize 24/7.”
There was some discussion about the timing of the contract. This contract with Star would run through the end of 2024; however, Star currently provides services to the city in conjunction with the contract it has with Valley Transit to provide security services. The contract Star has with Valley Transit runs from July through June, and there was concern that having staggered contract periods would get in the way of the Department of Public Works and Valley Transit from being able to hold a joint bidding process to hopefully get competitive quotes that would handle both their needs. City Attorney Christopher Behrens said he thought his office could negotiate with Star and include language in a contract that would deal with that issue. He expected that if Valley Transit’s contract ended and the Department of Public Works and Valley Transit pursued a joint contract, presumably Star would be one of the contractors bidding on it. If they ended up remaining with Star, the current 2024 contract could potentially go away and be superseded by a new contract. If DPW and Valley Transit went with a different security service, that contract could take into account DPW’s 2024 agreement with Star and result in the new company not providing full security services for the ramps until 2025.
The committee voted unanimously to approve the contract.
[It’s hard to watch this meeting and not come away thinking that at least one of the reasons the parking ramps are underutilized and the parking utility is not bringing in sufficient revenue is because of these issues.]
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1165750&GUID=4CD762FF-D906-433A-B89D-312DA9CAA01C
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