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Council authorizes negotiation with Avalon for card processing, conditions approval on integration testing
Summary
After extended debate about rising merchant fees and integration challenges, the council authorized staff to negotiate with Avalon and allowed the mayor to sign final terms contingent on successful testing; staff estimated $150,000–$195,000 in potential annual savings.
The council debated Resolution 2025-74, which authorizes the city manager to negotiate an agreement with Avalon for credit-card processing and authorizes the mayor to sign final contract terms.
City staff described the problem as a recent spike in effective merchant fees under the city’s existing processor (Global Payments), which staff said has pushed effective fees toward an effective rate approaching 6% when transaction and risk fees are included. The staff packet included a comparative analysis of several vendors and staff said one vendor’s proposed integration could reduce the city’s effective rate and cut costs substantially. Staff projected savings in the range of $150,000 to $195,000 per year if the recommended vendor’s integration is successful.
Several council members urged that the integration be fully tested in a non-production environment before staff finalizes contract terms. Staff replied that testing will be completed and that the resolution is written so the mayor will not sign if the integration fails. "Every month that you wait, it causes us to lose some," a staff member said, arguing that delays prolong the extra cost the city is absorbing. Other council members urged holding final authorization until after testing so the city would not be locked into an unproven integration.
The council authorized the negotiation with Avalon and granted conditional authority to the mayor to sign final terms pending successful integration and testing. Staff said testing would take approximately 10 days and that they would report the test results to the mayor before any final signature.
