Pending City Contract to LAZ Parking Questioned

A self-described “concerned citizen” has mailed a two-page letter with 17 pages of documentation to the Beachcomber questioning a pending city council item on Nov. 7. Agenda item 17-1011 recommends approval of a contract valued at no more than $9,448,978 over a period of three years. The recipient company is LAZ Parking California, LLC, for citywide parking operations and management services at 26 city parking properties.

The anonymous letter documents two cases of theft and kickbacks in the last 15 months involving LAZ Parking in the cities of Chicago and Boston. It also demonstrated that the City of Pasadena recently selected LAZ Parking for services similar to those in Long Beach totaling $9 million. After learning of the Chicago and Boston allegations, Pasadena’s city manager suggested “suspending the award pending an investigation.”

Read the entire 19-page, anonymous document here: https://beachcomber.news/content/parking-anonymous-letter

Long Beach Public Works Director Craig Beck told the Beachcomber "These are issues that were fully vetted by staff before the recommendation was made to council.  Also, LAZ does have a number of California clients, including West Hollywood, Kaiser, California Parks & Recreation. The number two vendor (SP+) protested the recommended bid award to LAZ and the city's purchasing agent found there to be no merit to their protest."

Over the last 10 years SP Plus Corporation has been the parking operator for the City of Long Beach. Beachcomber Editor and Publisher Jay Beeler suspects that SP Plus was the source of the anonymous information to the media – in a mailed envelope that lacked a return address or postage cancellation indicia. "This anonymous mailer doesn't pass the smell test," Beeler said. "In fact, it appears to be a case of sour grapes."