Royal Oak approves Flowbird pay stations, ParkMobile app in negotiated city‑drafted contract

Royal Oak's City Commission voted July 14 to replace the city's aging and inconsistent on‑street parking equipment with a modern system centered on approximately 150 Flowbird solar pay stations and ParkMobile for mobile payments.

City staff and counsel said they drafted the contract, negotiated terms with outside counsel and the vendors, and included provisions that keep asset ownership with the city, impose fixed costs with no vendor revenue sharing and require public outreach. The initial procurement and implementation cost on the contract packet was corrected at the meeting to $888,672 (the packet had a typographical error showing extra zeros).

The new system will move the city toward pay‑by‑license‑plate operations and give users text‑receipt options and the ability to store multiple license plates and prepay a wallet balance. Staff said the vendor selection followed an inclusive process with a parking steering committee, DDA members, public open houses and demonstrations; Flowbird was the public's preferred pay station in hands‑on testing.

"We took the parameters of our RFP, turned them into a contract, presented the contract to the proposed vendors," the city attorney explained. Implementation steps outlined by staff include a fall delivery window for pay stations, an autumn public outreach campaign, and a planned system 'turn on' date of Jan. 1.

Commissioners who served on the steering committee praised the process and the negotiated terms as materially different from the prior contract. The commission voted to approve the agreement and direct staff to begin outreach and coordinate enforcement and garage operations updates that will be returned to the commission later.

Next steps: staff will run implementation planning, schedule vendor walk‑throughs, conduct public education in the fall and phase in pay stations and ParkMobile; enforcement and garage operations updates will come back to the commission.