A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA, ACCEPTING THE WRITTEN RECOMMENDATION OF THE CITY MANAGER (AS FURTHER SET FORTH IN THE CITY COMMISSION MEMORANDUM ACCOMPANYING THIS RESOLUTION) AND WAIVING, BY 5/7TH VOTE, THE FORMAL COMPETITIVE BIDDING REQUIREMENT, FINDING SUCH WAIVER TO BE IN THE CITY’S BEST INTEREST, AND APPROVING AND AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CITY CLERK TO EXECUTE A CREDIT CARD PROCESSING AGREEMENT FOR THE MIAMI BEACH GOLF CLUB AND NORMANDY SHORES GOLF CLUB, WITH ETS CORPORATION, IN A FORM ACCEPTABLE TO THE CITY MANAGER AND THE CITY ATTORNEY, FOR A THREE (3) YEAR TERM, WITH TWO (2) ADDITIONAL ONE (1) YEAR RENEWALS, IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $115,000.00 EACH YEAR.

Commission vote on waiving, by 5/7ths vote, the formal competitive bidding requirement, finding such waiver to be in the best interest of the City, and approve and authorize the Mayor and City Clerk to execute a Credit Card Processing Agreement with ETS Corporation, in a form acceptable to the City Manager and the City Attorney, for a three (3) year term, with two (2) additional one (1) year renewals, in an amount not to exceed $115,000.00 for each year.

Since Miami Beach Golf Club (“MBGC”) and Normandy Shores Golf Club (“NSGC”) re-opened in 2002 and 2008 respectively, the contracted management company, Professional Course Management (“PCM”), has used Fore! Reservations as the point of sale and tee time reservation system for the pro shops.

Fore! Reservations integrates with only two credit card processors: ETS Corporation and Mercury. Since the City of Miami Beach has an exclusive arrangement with First Data, PCM has been unable to integrate the credit card processing to the point of sale system; which has resulted in processing credit and debit card transactions with a separate terminal. This setup has created a host of issues:

• Slows down the process of taking payments as it duplicates the steps the pro shop attendant needs to take to complete a transaction, which has become a larger problem now as chip enabled cards process at a slower pace.

• Opens up the possibility of operator error as the pro shop attendant has to enter the transaction amount and tender method manually.

• Complicates the daily reconciliation as a result of entry errors.

• Forces PCM to use paper gift certificates (which are cumbersome and difficult to manage) in lieu of gift cards

• Prevents PCM from taking credit card guarantees for tee time reservations to avoid no shows.

• With the advent of chip enabled cards, PCM has experienced multiple instances where a transaction receipt prints out is as a debit card but the transaction is processed as Visa or Master Card, sometimes double billing the customer.  

One option of correcting the issues listed above is by changing our Point of Sale (POS) Software.  Staff has looked at available Point of Sale Systems and all of the options are more expensive than the system we currently use.  The lowest alternative POS system begins at $5,400 more per year, per golf club than our current system.  This $10,8000 increase for the new POS system added to the higher monthly service charge rate of First Data supports keeping our current POS and transitioning to ETS

The only other alternative is to change credit card processors. PCM has used ETS Corporation for the last eight years with good results at other golf course locations such as Miami Shores Country Club. Changing to ETS Corporation will allow the City to resolve all the issues PCM is currently experience, streamlining pro shop operations and improving the customer experience, while incurring no extra expense and perhaps even reducing credit card processing costs, since it is anticipated that ETS Corporation will be less expensive than First Data on an annual basis.

With the current credit card processor in FY 17, the City paid $105,369.56 in Bank Fees at both golf clubs. Moving forward, the bid waiver request will be not to exceed $115,000.00 each year, due to the anticipated increase in business over the next few years. Upon City Commission approval of this item, an agreement between the City and ETS Corporation will be reviewed, approved and executed.