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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA proposal to lease the city’s parking meters for 50 years would require the vendor to bring 200 jobs to Indianapolis for at least seven years.
City officials this week begin touting that part of the agreement with Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services Inc., as the deal increasingly becomes a subject of heated debate.
The lease has been promoted by city leaders as a way to modernize meters and generate $400 million or more in revenue for road and sidewalk improvements in areas near the meters. But critics have said it would restrict the city’s flexibility when it comes to urban planning and rake in lots of revenue—perhaps as much as $1.2 billion, according to an IBJ estimate—for ACS.
According to documents published Monday on the city’s website, the 200 jobs would include call center and data entry positions, information technology workers and managers.
The salaries and benefits would be “market-competitive to similar positions in Indianapolis,” which ACS put in the range of an annual $16,000 to $40,000 for data entry and call center jobs and $45,000 to $95,000 for the information technology and managerial roles.
The company would be required to roll out the jobs within two years of signing the contract, a timetable that is contingent upon whether the City-County Council approves the deal and the timing of their vote, said Chris Gilligan, an ACS spokesman.
The agreement also stipulates that 50 of the 200 jobs be located in Center Township, including some filled by employees who live in Center Township and would be given clearance to work from home. The company would determine other locations based on factors such as cost and ability to attract staff.
ACS would pay the city a monthly penalty of $166.67 for each job the company did not provide.
The company estimated the seven-year impact of the jobs between $18 million and $24 million, according to the online documents.
Gilligan said ACS also has added jobs in cities such as Anderson, Lexington, Ky., and Oklahoma City.
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