Susan Morgan, the city's chief financial officer, said the agreement will allow the city to accept Discover and American Express as forms of payment to its utilities department as well as Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal further down the line. Currently, the city only accepts Visa and Mastercard.
Morgan said the current payment processing service being used by the city, Smart Energy Water, has presented issues, necessitating a change in vendor.
"We've had a lot of data reliability issues," Morgan said. "The problem resolution has been very slow. It really impacts our customer billing. That impacts our customer relationships and credibility."
The agreement will also save the city around $300,000 compared to its current vendor, according to Morgan.
The city will work to implement the new system over the summer, with the contract's initial five-year term set to begin Aug. 1. The $1.89 million contract will be paid through the city's utility fund.
