Committee hears options for QR-access and mobile restroom leases for parks; staff to seek vendor briefings

Jason Paulson, a city staff member presenting to the oversight committee on October 9, summarized two vendor approaches the city has discussed for providing public restroom access in parks and other locations: a QR-code access system used in retail settings (Good To Go) and movable, leased, fully serviced mobile restrooms (Throne Labs or similar providers).

Paulson said Good To Go’s offering is a low-information QR-code system mainly used as a deterrent in retail restrooms; it provides a timestamp and can link to surveillance to identify vandalism but does not necessarily collect user feedback. "They just provided a pretty much an instant QR code that really didn't collect any information or give you an option to leave feedback," Paulson said.

Nut graf: The committee explored temporary and permanent restroom options with different trade-offs: lower-cost QR-access retrofits versus leased mobile units that are ADA-accessible, remotely monitored and moved quarterly. Key questions for the committee included cost, maintenance, how to ensure access for people without smartphones, and whether a metrowide procurement could meet vendor requirements for scale.

Mobile leased units vs. permanent installations Paulson described the mobile leased model (the company that calls itself Throne Labs in the presentation materials) as an air-conditioned, heated mobile restroom that can be relocated quarterly, comes with remote monitoring and can be paired with contracted cleaning (one to three times per day depending on the package). He said the vendor offers card-based access for people without phones through partner shelters and that the units are self-contained (freshwater and waste tanks) and ADA-accessible. "This also has a QR code that does record information of who's going in and out of that restroom," Paulson said.

Costs and procurement constraints Staff noted that a permanent, highly serviced installation similar to models used by larger cities can be expensive — Paulson cited costs in the range of $225,000–$400,000 for certain permanent systems — while the leased, mobile model was described in the meeting as averaging about $80,000 per unit per year. Paulson said the mobile vendor asked for a regional commitment — roughly 15 units across the metro — to justify a contractor for maintenance. He also said the vendor requires an initial base of units before it will dispatch local service support.

Access and equity concerns Council members raised concerns about whether people experiencing homelessness without smartphones would be able to use QR-code-based systems. Paulson and other staff described vendor proposals that include shelter-issued cards to register people who lack phones. Committee members asked staff to gather data on cellphone access among shelter populations and to consult providers such as City Care to estimate penetration rates before deciding on a model. "It would be interesting if we recognized how many people go through municipal court. Does everybody have a cell phone?" a city official said, proposing data collection to inform deployment.

Potential sites, funding and next steps Committee members suggested potential pilot locations including Andrews Park, Reeves Park and a downtown/transit-center area; staff cited utility limitations in remote parks like Saxon and noted the leased mobile units do not require water or sewer hookups. Possible long-term funding avenues discussed included shifting maintenance lines in parks’ budgets or using portions of hotel/motel bed tax revenues earmarked for parks facilities.

Staff said Throne Labs (or the mobile vendor) will be invited to present a fuller briefing to the committee at a later meeting and that they would prepare a realistic list of potential sites and gauge regional partner interest to meet the vendor’s scale requirement. No formal action was taken at the meeting.