City of Los Angeles and IPS Group Inc. Awarded by US Mayors for Excellence in Public/Private Partnership for Coin/Credit Parking

The U.S. Conference of Mayors recognized partnerships between cities and private companies at the Conferences 80 th Winter Meeting. Los Angeles and New Orleans received top honors; and Elizabeth, NJ and Long Beach, CA received outstanding achievement awards.

The Mayors Business Council established the awards to encourage businesses and cities to work together to improve local communities. An independent panel of judges was appointed by the Conference of Mayors to review individual submissions. Selections were made based on a set of criteria including: improvement in delivery of services, replicability, sustainability, costsavings, creativity of approach, benefits to both public and private partners, economic and business benefits, and measurable results.

Long Beach, CA Mayor and Business Council Chair Bob Foster remarked, "Mayors have always understood the power of the private sector to affect change and improve lives and we can point to successful public private partnerships in cities across the nation. Todays awards recognize four successful and outstanding relationships between cities and businesses."

U.S. Conference of Mayors President Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa and CEO and Executive Director, Tom Cochran, also participated in the ceremony.

There were two categories: The Award of Excellence (two awards presented) and Outstanding Achievement Awards (two awards presented).

AWARD OF EXCELLENCE:

Los Angeles, CA/IPS Group Inc.

While parking meters and changes to parking policies can almost certainly prompt a strong public reaction, the City of Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation in partnership with San Diego-based IPS Group Inc., have used the latest in solar power and wireless technologies to forever improve the way that people interact with the traditional parking meter in the City of Los Angeles. In doing so, this project has not only garnered tremendous public support, improvements in parking/transportation operations, but has generated millions of incremental annual revenue for the City.

The new meters also are helping to advance the Citys efforts to become more sustainable. The City of Los Angeles now has the most solar-powered parking meters in the country. They are more reliable, in part, because they use the solar battery instead of AA batteries which need frequent replacement. The new Card & Coin Meters will prevent the need to dispose of 40,000 AA batteries per year through the use of solar power. By reusing our existing poles and using clean solar power, these new Coin and Card meters are a win-win for customers, the city, and the environment, added Mayor Villaraigosa. 

Other awards

The other Award of Excellent was given to the New Orleans based company Veolia Water North America for wastewater infrastructure>

The outstanding achievement awards were attributed to American Water (Elizabeth, NJ) and Waste Managment, Inc. (Long Beach, CA).

To read additional information on this award-winning program on our website, go to http://www.usmayors.org/buscouncil/

The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are 1,139 such cities in the country today, each represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the Mayor.