The City has been approached by several of the major wireless communication companies expressing their desire to implement "small cell" technology on our city-owned assets (primarily targeting street lights). This technology is intended to satisfy coverage needs for those wireless carriers.

5 Bars will provide industry and technical expertise which will assist the city in handling all aspects of these implementations. 5 Bars will create a Wireless Master Plan based on their work with the following services: a Radio Frequency (RF) study, cellular facility design standards developed along with city staff, and a marketing plan for city assets eligible for wireless facilities.

Once a marketing plan is developed, the city will give 5 Bars licenses to the agreed upon eligible city assets. 5 Bars, in turn, will then market such assets for the development of wireless facilities to all wireless service providers equally and will subsequently enter into sublicense agreements with the selected providers. At all times, the city controls which facilities are eligible and whether a sublicense can be entered into or not.

The goal is for 5 Bars to represent and work with the city in negotiations with the wireless telecommunication companies for license agreements to install cellular facilities on the city-owned assets in exchange for an agreed upon recurring rent payment amount. In addition, having 5 Bars act as the city’s agent for these negotiations will save significant staff resources.

Pursuant to Section 4.12.105 of the Roseville Municipal Code, a contract for services may be made without adhering to the city’s normal competitive bidding process as long as another city entered into a similar contract after following a bidding or request for proposal (RFP) process which substantially conforms to the city’s bidding or RFP requirements and as long as the other city’s agreement is still in full force and effect and was not entered into more than three years ago. In order to use this “piggybacking” process, the contract must be in the city’s best interests. The City of Sacramento issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for a Wireless Marketing Plan in February, 2016. Staff has reviewed Sacramento’s RFQ and has determined that the process used by Sacramento is similar to and substantially conforms to Roseville’s RFP process. Sacramento ultimately entered into an agreement with 5 Bars on June 9th, 2016, which is still in full force and effect, under the same revenue terms as the contract proposed with the city. Due to the pending requests from several of the major wireless communication companies, using the piggybacking process to enter into this contract is in the city’s best interests.

City staff believes implementation of this technology on city assets is imminent. This agreement is a proactive move on the part of the city to hire industry experts to help maximize the value and efficiency of wireless technology implementations throughout the city.

5 Bars will provide the services identified in the agreement at no cost to the city, however 5 Bars will receive compensation for each wireless facility license agreement negotiated between 5 Bars (representing the city, and the wireless telecommunication companies). The city shall receive 65% and 5 Bars 35% of the revenue coming from new license agreements and the city shall receive 75% and 5 Bars 25% of the revenue coming from the addition of wireless telecommunications facilities added to the site of an existing city-owned wireless telecommunications facility (co-location).

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Rob Jensen, City Manager