The Sacramento City Council is scheduled Tuesday to consider a proposal that would allow other governments to use a licensing agreement developed to market the city's wireless infrastructure and assets to private companies.
In June, the City Council approved a partnership with Irvine, Calif.-based company "5 Bars," which will develop a wireless master plan for Sacramento, “proactively market" city-owned assets and negotiate agreements with service providers on behalf of the city, according to the agreement.
Now, the National Intergovernmental Purchasing Alliance Company (National IPA) — a cooperative purchasing network — wants to offer Sacramento's contract to other government entities and educational institutions.
In exchange for utilizing the contract, the city of Sacramento will receive a small percentage of National IPA's administrative fees collected from 5 Bars and an additional 2 percent from 5 Bars as a result of resulting future agreements with other public agencies, according to a city staff report.
Sacramento estimates it would receive a "minimal" amount of revenue — maybe $20,000 — which would be used to support the city's IT systems.
Under the contract terms, 5 Bars won’t charge Sacramento up front for its services; instead, the company will take 35 percent of gross revenue from all new leases and 25 percent for leases on existing towers that they implement. Under the partnership, 5 Bars is tasked with impartially marketing Sacramento to all vendors. The initial five-year partnership could be extended to as many as 25 years.
Sacramento CIO Maria MacGunigal told Techwire in July that the arrangement with 5 Bars should result in a streamlined process for vendors that want to co-locate their infrastructure on city property, while at the same time managing the visual clutter on city property, such as light poles, that small-scale networks can create.
