When the city first contracted with Zipcar to bring a car sharing service to town two years ago, it inked a deal that put the private Boston-based company in the driver’s seat, financially speaking.

The Davis City Council will be asked to approve a renewal of that contract at its meeting Tuesday, but the contract would shift the financial gain back to the city.

The council meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Chambers at City Hall, 23 Russell Blvd. It will be streamed live at www.cityofdavis.org/media and can be viewed on Comcast Channel 16.

Should the council agree to the new deal, Zipcar would start paying rent for the city-owned parking spots it uses — $996 per year for each of the three downtown vehicles, including a new hybrid car that would come as part of the deal, and $696 per year for the two “outside of Core Area” vehicles. A total of $4,380 in annual revenue would be realized.

Under the old contract, the city had been paying Zipcar for the right to offer the shared-car service to Davis residents.

During the first year, the city paid $8,712 to the car sharing company. However, once overall vehicle usage topped 40 percent, Zipcar dropped the fee and the service came to Davis at no cost. Zipcar will continue to waive the fee if the city renews its contract.

But while many municipalities may have had their minimum guarantee fees dropped, few yet have convinced Zipcar to pay them for the right to operate on city property.

According to Stacey Winton, the city’s administrative analyst, University of California campuses in Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz, Sacramento State University and the cities of Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles have not yet required Zipcar to pay for parking spaces.

However, Winton said Monday that charging Zipcar may become common practice for cities and other public agencies.

And like the city of Davis, UC Davis also recently finalized a two-year contract extension and will similarly charge $696 per year per space. The university has nine cars on campus.

In addition to the financial benefit of the contract, the city’s new two-year deal would add an additional vehicle to the city’s initial fleet of four, with the stipulation that Davis would see more cars based on customer demand.

Members had shown interest in a “Tahoe-ready” SUV and Zipcar already has switched out a regular car for a Honda CR-V. The new vehicle likely will be a hybrid, according to Winton.

City staff have suggested placing the first new vehicle near the Davis train depot downtown.

Last year, the council denied a request by city staff to add two vehicles in the train station parking lot because it did not want to reduce the number of spots available for commuters.

The city then conducted a survey of local Zipcar members and conducted a three-week trial with two cars in the depot parking lot and decided that a spot near the train station would be the best place for the fifth car due to higher-than-expected usage.

The other two options were to add a car at the E Street Plaza or near Trader Joe’s in the University Mall parking lot at Russell Boulevard and Sycamore Lane. Two cars already are parked at each location.

City staff also has added language to the contract that allows the city to contract with other car share service providers during the term of the agreement.

Davis’ Zipcar program currently has 148 members, in addition to UC Davis’ membership of 1,755, which includes students. staff and faculty members.

In other action Tuesday, the City Council will hear a presentation from Yolo County officials regarding the privatization of animal services that could reduce costs as well as local euthanasia rates. The county Board of Supervisors expressed support for the change earlier this month.

The council also will welcome Dean Newberry, chairman of the Natural Resources Commission, for a discussion of issues such as a single-use plastic bag ordinance, wood burning, community choice energy and water conservation.

— Reach Tom Sakash at [email protected] or (530) 747-8057. Follow him on Twitter @TomSakash

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