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Page 2 of 4 initially awarded a professional services contract to SEW for a customer service web portal software implementation and a five-year technical support agreement that started in April 2017 and expired in 2022. Staff then entered into a new one-year agreement for technical support, which expired on June 30, 2023. In June 2023, the CIty Council approved a second five-year agreement with SEW which includes a software upgrade that is currently underway. DISCUSSION The City currently uses JP Morgan Chase Bank for Citywide banking services, including utility billing payment services. JPMC has consolidated electronic consumer payments that utilize BridgePay and Paymentech. The City received notice that BridgePay will no longer be supported for the City’s credit card customers, effective December 31, 2024. Concurrently, SEW’s connection with BridgePay stopped working in early October, and SEW has not been able to accept customer payments for more than a month. There is one-time charge of $17,280 (SEW Order Form for Payment Services) to resolve the issue. Since SEW can provide the payment services that JPMC currently provides, staff evaluated transitioning to SEW for these services. Knowing there are current issues with BridgePay and that the City will need to transition away from Bridgepay in 2024, staff is recommending transitioning to SEW’s online payment services for customers paying their utility bill on SEW’s platform. Since the City currently has a five-year agreement with SEW there is an opportunity for the City to save both time and money by transitioning to SEW’s online payment services at this time. With City Council approval of this amendment, SEW will incorporate the payment services into the implementation of the software upgrade that is part of the second five-year agreement. Meanwhile, SEW is working on a resolution for the current issues, and the transition over to the proposed payment services will not be effective until the implementation of the software upgrade is complete. The new additional online payment service features included in this proposal allow customers the ability to pay online by the following methods: • Use Apple Pay and Google Pay • Use ACH and/or eCheck • Schedule future payments • Schedule autopay with credit cards, ACH, and PayPal. The proposed agreement also includes waiving implementation fees valued at $35,000 and SEW will waive the one-time charge of $17,280 for SEW Change Request #3976 if the City transitions to SEW payment services before January 1, 2024. There are no additional costs to the City associated with this proposal since the bank fees currently paid to JPMC are proposed to be paid to SEW. The City is currently paying 2.41% plus bank fees on every credit card transaction through JPMC. The proposal reduces those fees to 1.73% plus bank fees for an estimated annual savings of $69,000 annually. Until the new system is fully operational, there are currently several ways for customers to make payments for utility bills: • By Phone: Call into the automated 24 X 7 phone line • In Person: Walk into the Operations Service Center at 3333 Busch Road DocuSign Envelope ID: ECD87DF2-0011-4B03-98B4-83FFFE6EE4F0DocuSign Envelope ID: 2151E2A1-A7DD-4CDB-946C-16B728322856