Council Extends Downtown Smart Parking Contract Through Oct. 2
The 5-0 consent-calendar vote keeps Frogparking's mobile payment and real-time parking guidance running at $7,840 a month while the city shops for a new vendor.
The City Council voted unanimously on May 12 to keep the city's smart-parking-guidance system running through the summer, approving a six-month extension of its contract with Frogparking, Inc. for an amount not to exceed $47,040.
The vote came on the consent calendar, moved by Councilmember Alex Rounaghi and seconded by Councilmember Sue Kempf, with items 1 through 8 and 10 through 16 approved together. The motion carried 5-0, with all five councilmembers present: Kempf, Rounaghi, Whalen, Jones and Mayor Mark Orgill, presiding at City Hall.
Item 13 authorized the city manager to execute the Third Amendment to Agreement No. 19-39 with Frogparking, in a form approved by the city attorney, extending the agreement until Oct. 2, 2026. The council also found the action is not a project under the California Environmental Quality Act. The staff report's environmental analysis described the extension as organizational and administrative activity that maintains the status quo and will not result in a direct or indirect physical change in the environment.
The amendment covers mobile parking services and smart parking guidance, including software that addresses real-time parking availability for city parking lots and meter zones along with parking payment services, according to the agreement's own recitals.
The extension runs April 3 through Oct. 2, 2026, at $7,840 per month. Staff recommended it to ensure uninterrupted parking operations while the city completes a request for proposals for new mobile parking software and hardware services and transitions to a new vendor, keeping continuity through the peak summer season.
Responses to the RFP closed May 8, 2026, and staff said it expected to be able to award a new contract at the June 9 council meeting. Even so, staff recommended delaying the new contract's effective date until after the summer season, by Oct. 2, when the Frog agreement would automatically terminate if the amendment were approved.
The city can terminate the Frog agreement early if it lines up another vendor sooner, paying only prorated services from the date notice of termination is given. The amendment also clarifies a 2.6 percent convenience fee charged on each transaction by Windcave, Frog's authorized payment processing subcontractor: the city collects the full transaction fee and remits the convenience-fee portion to Windcave upon presentation of an invoice.
The relationship dates to April 25, 2019, when the city signed a five-year software and hardware agreement with Frog for mobile parking services. It was first amended on April 22, 2024, extending the term through April 2, 2025, for a $95,000 subscription cost, and amended a second time on March 11, 2025, extending it through April 2, 2026, for $95,814.47.
Staff reported funding for the six-month extension is included in the fiscal year 2025-26 and 2026-27 budgets, and the item was submitted by Alexis Braun, Acting Director of Transit and Community Services.
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