As recently as October, city officials suggested in writing that a “new contract” would be forthcoming for the operator of the miniature Zilker Zephyr train – a promise that, if acted upon, could have prevented closure of the train.
Instead, negotiations between the Parks and Recreation Department and the operator broke down.
The Zilker Zephyr is a long-running fixture of Zilker Park and has been operated by Texas Special Company for over 20 years. Last week the company said that it would “say goodbye” to the park after failing to reach an agreement with the city for extension of the current concession agreement.
The dispute between the city and the company relates to the cost of repairing track that was washed out by a rainstorm last year. The company was willing to shoulder the cost of $286,000, but it wanted a five-year contract extension in order to guarantee recovery of its investment.
City staff seemed eager to strike a deal, according to a document obtained by public information request. Signed in October, a five-month extension between the two parties referred explicitly to “a new contract” that the two parties were looking to execute.
“This amendment is to provide additional time for repairs and a new contract to be executed,” says the document, which was signed by Acting Parks Director Kimberly McNeeley and Texas Special Vice President Abel Rodriguez.
City ‘Planned Re-Bid’ And Promised Contract Renewal
The wording of this document undercuts city officials’ explanation last week that the end of the contract with Texas Special Company was part of a normal process to re-bid the long-term concession.
Officials in fact were looking to make a deal with Texas Special Company, or else were deliberately misleading the company as to the prospects for a followup deal.
From May 2019 through October the two parties held “countless meetings” to try to reach a solution, the company said.
Texas Special Company suffered a setback on October 22 when the Parks and Recreation board voted 6-3 to recommend to the Parks and Recreation Department director to “re-compete the concession contract,” according to official minutes of the meeting.
However, talks continued between the Zephyr management and the parks department for at least another two months. “The parks and recreation director still had the opportunity to decide to offer us a contract extension or choose to put the train contract out to bid,” the Zephyr management said.
The Parks Department said in a statement Jan. 29 that it “planned to re-bid the service,” but also acknowledged continuing to negotiate with the current vendor “for a new professional services contract.”
“As with other long-term concessions, the Department planned to re-bid the service to ensure the public receives the best services possible… In consideration of the additional repair costs, the Department worked in good faith with the vendor on an agreement to continue operations while preserving future bidding opportunities.”
On its Facebook page, the Zephyr management said that the parks department acted “deceptively” in leading the company to believe that it would be given a new contract: “Why did PARD lead us to believe we had a chance to make repairs and a contract extension? Why not say, ‘let’s wait because our contract is almost over and PARD might want to put the contract out for bid again.’ Instead… PARD misled us and let us spend over forty thousand dollars [for engineering consulting] and countless hours on finding a solution for the problem.”
Fate of the Train
The city department says it is “saddened” by the closure of the miniature train but insists that it is only temporary and that it is working to secure a new operator.
Under the original 1996 agreement between the City of Austin and Texas Special Company, all “permanent concession facilities and fixtures shall become the property of the City upon expiration or cancellation of this Agreement.” However, Texas Special company said on Facebook, “We are leaving Zilker Park and we are taking our big green Zephyr train with us!”
