Melissa Petrone, director of parks and recreation, presented staff's recommendation to outsource daily operations of Tamarac's community shuttle service to Bridal Mobility under a piggyback agreement with the City of Coral Springs. She described the current service (two fixed-route community shuttles funded by Broward County) and said a contracted operator would provide driver recruitment and training, vehicle maintenance and backup vehicles at no additional cost to the city.

"Bridal will provide our current shuttle program but also look into expanding our operations, for example, expanding our services into the weekends as long as Broward County approves it," Petrone said. She listed operational benefits the vendor would supply: a rider-facing app with real-time tracking, route planning and optimization, an improved maintenance plan, and a dedicated facility for vehicle storage and maintenance.

Petrone said outsourcing is expected to produce a roughly $150,000 annual savings through reduced salary, maintenance, fuel and insurance costs and by removing three city vehicles from the fleet-maintenance workload. She noted vendor responsibilities would include monthly and annual reporting to Broward County transit and that any weekend expansion would require county approval.

Why it matters: the proposal affects a city service used by residents and alters operational responsibility from city employees to a private vendor. The recommended change would shift hiring and training to the vendor and reduce in-house fleet demands while preserving county-provided assets.

Next steps: the item will appear on the commission agenda for consideration; staff recommended outsourcing and will provide the final contract language and piggyback authority for commission review.