From: Bauman, Robert Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 4:29 PM To: Floyd, Dorinda; MacDonald, Terry Subject: FW: Google Alert - parking meter Attachments: _AVG certification_.txt Please this to the file. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: George Levey [mailto:glevey@caleparkingusa.com] Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 3:54 PM To: Bauman, Robert Subject: FW: Google Alert - parking meter Mr. Bauman; thank you for taking my call this afternoon. My name is George Levey. I am the President of Cale Parking Systems USA, Inc. The article I mentioned in our call today was from OnMilwaukee.com The history or key factors I believe a council person should know are; 1) There were competitors to choose from where the meters would function properly on solar. And we, Cale, also provided to the parking committee many reference contacts to confirm this point. 2) As a matter of fact, my company Cale has the largest install of the same application your city requested. We have 1300 meters installed in Montreal Canada. These meters run off a battery that is recharged by our solar panel, and the meters operate. They have been installed for almost 5 years now. So the article I sent you states it’s the first winter for the Luke. Not sure of the point, because all I can say is, if the new meter had problems in year 1, common sense states as the meter gets older and parts get older, the Luke will most likely grow in issues. What was the persons point that was defending the meter, it needs to get accustomed to the cold? 3) The parking committee communicated to the vendors it was a requirement to operate on solar, only to change the specifications after they selected the Luke, and only because they must have recognized the Luke meter would not function properly with solar. I was not the company that formally complained, but I should have. 4) If I was on council, I would be asking what the cost was to get the meters connected to A/C, and the cost to continue to run off of a/c. These expenses clearly could have been avoided with another selection 5) If the council was to pull the bids, they will see the Luke was priced at a premium 6) Also, when the committee compared pricing, they really matched apples and oranges. I know for a fact our meter was over a $1,000 each less expensive than the Luke offer, but that was with the specifications requested. If we were requested to quote a/c, we most likely would have been $2,000 less expensive. When you are talking hundreds of meters, well you can do the math. 7) I can only tell you 1 other city in the entire country that has multi-space meters on-street that are NOT solar, and of course it is another Luke program. It is my impression the parking committee sincerely believed they were purchasing the correct meter for their application. I do believe the method to make the selection was with error and I believe they did not do proper due-diligence. Today the City of Milwaukee has paid many hundreds of thousands of dollars in premiums for a meter that seems to be putting you in the news for the wrong reasons. I am here to tell you, the next article may state as a defense, “well it was the first summer” If you would like to have any further conversations, please feel free to call me on my cell 727-804-5220 George Levey President- Cale Parking Systems USA, Inc From: rbonardi@caleparkingusa.com [mailto:rbonardi@caleparkingusa.com] Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 2:40 PM To: 'George Levey' Subject: FW: Google Alert - parking meter READ THIS ARTICLE, Finally Digital is being recognized for what they really are. Ryan Bonardi Director of Sales - Cale Parking Systems USA, Inc. Ph.-410-534-2790 Mob. - 770-634-4947 Fax - 410-534-9110 http://www.caleparkingusa.com -----Original Message----- From: Google Alerts [mailto:googlealerts-noreply@google.com] Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 1:49 PM To: rbonardi@caleparkingusa.com Subject: Google Alert - parking meter Google News Alert for: parking meter Duking it out with LUKE OnMilwaukee.com - Milwaukee,USA The single-space meters also failed and the city did not enforce parking meter rules on Jan. 30 as a result. Floyd defended the machines and the bidding ... See all stories on this topic