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Council authorizes service agreement for city EV chargers, sets public hearing to adopt user fees
Summary
Council authorized the city manager to execute a service agreement with Liberty Plug Ins to manage nine city EV chargers and directed staff to hold a public hearing to set charging fees; the motion passed 4–1 with one councilmember voting no.
The San Dimas City Council on Jan. 13 authorized the city manager to enter into a proposed service agreement with Liberty Plug Ins to manage the city's nine level‑2 electric vehicle charging units and directed staff to schedule a public hearing to adopt user fees.
Sherry Garwick, director of public works, told council that the nine chargers (at three public locations) are currently free to users but electricity and maintenance costs have risen; staff projects electricity costs for the city’s chargers will exceed $100,000 for the current year. To recover operating costs, staff recommended a three‑year agreement with Liberty Plug Ins, with a vendor cost to the city of roughly $9 per charger per month (about $972 per year for all nine) and a 35¢ per‑transaction user fee charged to the customer. "All of these chargers are currently available at no cost to users," Garwick said. "Because of rising electricity rates and increased usage, staff is recommending that the city begin charging a user fee to recover the full cost of operating these chargers."
Council members probed the vendor's app performance and asked for contract safeguards. One council member noted poor mobile‑app reviews and urged caution: "If we implement this and we have users using this app... we will hear about it and will have to remedy the situation," Councilmember Nakano said, adding staff should verify performance and include contract performance metrics. Garwick said the draft contract would be revised to include performance metrics and remedies and that the vendor recommended implementing an idle fee to discourage vehicles from occupying stations after charging completes.
Council also discussed whether to pursue resident or senior discount rates and asked staff to return with options. A motion to authorize the agreement and set a public hearing on rates passed with four yes and one no; the mayor identified the lone no vote as Councilman McConnell. Staff will bring a proposed rate structure to the council at the public hearing and, if adopted, the fee will be added to the citywide fee schedule.
