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Council backs bringing Infosend contract to regular meeting to outsource billing mailings
Summary
Staff recommended outsourcing the final print-and-mail step of monthly water billing to Infosend to save roughly $0.20 per billing and reduce staff workload; council asked for contract materials to be returned as a business item at the regular meeting.
Minnetrista staff recommended outsourcing the printing, folding and mailing portion of monthly water-billing processing to an outside vendor (Infosend) and the council gave direction to bring a contract for consideration at the regular meeting.
City finance and operations staff explained the shift from quarterly to monthly billing would increase touch points and customer-service time; outsourcing the physical print-and-mail step could reduce per-billing cost and free staff time. "I guess, to me, the decision seems like pretty logical to go with contracting with Infosend," said Brian Grimm, who led the financial discussion. Grimm said staff had talked with other cities and estimated the outsourcing step would save about $6,000 a year and roughly $0.20 per billing.
Councilmembers questioned vendor vetting, data access and redundancy: if staff outsource the mail step would the city retain raw data and customer-service control? Staff replied that "it's all our data" and that staff would keep customer-service responsibilities and data on-site at City Hall.
Some members raised process concerns about how thoroughly staff solicited bids; others emphasized reliability and redundancy concerns (single-staff dependency). After discussion a majority of councilmembers said they were comfortable bringing the contract and resolution back as a business item at the regular meeting for final approval.
Next steps: staff will prepare contract documents and a resolution to add to the regular meeting agenda for council consideration.
