10-28-781 Multiple newsrack area.

   (a)   The commissioner of transportation, after consultation with the commissioner of planning and development and the alderman of any affected ward, may designate any portion or portions of the public way as a multiple newsrack area. The area need not be contiguous. Within such an area, the placement, installation and maintenance of newsracks shall be prohibited, except as authorized by contract awarded under this section for the placement, installation and maintenance of multiple newsracks. The commissioner of transportation shall make such designation only if the commissioner determines that the designated area contains on each intersection within the area all or a portion of a group of at least five newsracks that are separated by a combined distance of 12 feet or less, and that the area requires such designation based upon the following considerations:

   (1)   The current number of newsracks within or near the proposed area so as to avoid undue concentration of newsracks;

   (2)   The impact on pedestrian and vehicular traffic and accessibility to public transportation;

   (3)   The impact on and proximity to buildings used for residential purposes;

   (4)   The resources available to the city to enforce the requirements and restrictions in the proposed area;

   (5)   The inconsistency of individual newsracks with the character of the surrounding streetscape;

   (6)   The availability or likely availability of a contractor to provide multiple newsracks in a proposed area.

   Before making any such designation, the commissioner shall conduct a survey of existing newsracks, and shall solicit comments from members of the public, community organizations and representatives of newspapers, including any task force organized for the purpose of evaluating or monitoring multiple newsrack programs, and shall consider those comments when determining whether to make the designation. Before making any such designation, the commissioner also shall issue written findings detailing the reasons for such designation. The territory of a multiple newsrack area may be decreased or enlarged in the same manner as the original designation. The restrictions in this section and subsections (j) and (k) of Section 10-28-760 shall not apply until compartments in multiple newsracks at each intersection within the designated area have been made available to persons distributing publications. In addition, the restrictions in this section and subsections (j) and (k) of Section 10-28-760 shall not apply to prohibit the placement of a newsrack dispensing a publication from a location that is further than 400 feet from any newspaper stand or multiple newsrack or any location at which an individual newsrack may be lawfully placed, measured by traversing the public way.

   (b)   The authority to place, install and maintain multiple newsracks in a multiple newsrack area shall be awarded by contract to a qualified respondent pursuant to a publicly advertised request for proposals issued by the chief procurement officer. The contract shall authorize the installation of at least one multiple newsrack at every intersection in the proposed area, and at other appropriate locations designated in the contract. The contract shall require the contractor to provide space in multiple newsracks at each intersection sufficient to accommodate the number of publications that had been distributed in single newsracks at the intersection at the time of the most recent survey upon which the designation is based, unless the commissioner determines that the requirements of this Code, or the existence of street furniture or other physical limitations, prohibits such accommodation. The contract may also require the contractor to remove unlawful newsracks as provided in Section 10-28-785. The contract shall include performance standards applicable to the contractor, and penalties for the failure of the contractor to meet those standards. Separate contracts may be awarded for the fabrication and maintenance of multiple newsracks, if appropriate.

   (c)   The chief procurement officer shall determine which respondents shall be awarded contracts pursuant to evaluation criteria based upon the following considerations:

      (1)   The ability of the respondent to place, install and maintain multiple newsracks of suitable design and quality within the multiple newsracks area; to remove unlawful newsracks as required by the contract; and to perform other obligations under the contract;

      (2)   The ultimate financial cost or economic benefit to the city if a contract is awarded to that respondent;

      (3)   The degree of participation of minority and women-owned businesses in the contract to the extent that preferences for such business are permitted by law; and

      (4)   The esthetic appeal and durability of the newsracks proposed by the respondent.

   In addition to the considerations set forth above, a respondent may be subject to state and city standards and disclosure requirements that are applicable to bidders on and parties to city contracts in general. No advertising, other than to identify or display publications that are offered in the newsrack, may be displayed on any multiple newsrack.

   (d)   Any person awarded a contract under this section must place, install and maintain multiple newsracks only as permitted by the contract, this article and the rules and regulations promulgated under this article.

   (e)   The commissioner shall, after consulting with members of the public, community organizations, and representatives of newspapers, including any task force organized for the purpose of evaluating or monitoring multiple newsrack programs, promulgate rules under which publications shall be assigned to compartments within multiple newsracks maintained by the contractor. The rules shall provide for the random assignment of such publications without regard to the content of the publications, except that the rules may:

      (1)   Limit access of each publication to one compartment at each intersection whenever the number of publications sought to be distributed exceeds the number of compartments available;

      (2)   At a particular intersection, give preference to publications with five or more different daily editions published each week, but only if the commissioner determines that, in the absence of such preference, more than 20 publications would be entitled to be distributed from multiple newsracks at that intersection; and

      (3)   At a particular intersection, give preference to publications that had been contained in single newsracks that were replaced with multiple newsracks at that intersection.

   The rules shall provide that, if a publication that was not distributed in an intersection in a multiple newsrack area during a prior assignment requests the use of a compartment in a multiple newsrack at that intersection and if there is no such available compartment, a new application and assignment process shall be conducted promptly for that intersection pursuant to those rules; provided that no more than one new application and assignment process need be conducted at any intersection in any six month period. The rules also shall provide that any compartment that remains empty for a period of 30 days shall be deemed vacant and may be assigned to another publication pursuant to this section. In no event may a publication be prevented from being distributed in at least one multiple newsrack at each intersection within a multiple newsrack area unless the commissioner excludes from the intersection, pursuant to rules promulgated under paragraph (e)(2) and/or (e)(3) above, publications with fewer than five different daily editions published each week that had not been contained in single newsracks at that intersection. If, pursuant to rules promulgated under this section, the commissioner excludes from any intersection one or more publications that seek to be distributed at that intersection, the commissioner shall do so by giving preference to publications based upon the greatest number of times per week that the distributor of the publication intends to replenish the newsrack with the publication, using numbers provided by the distributor under oath. In the event of a tie, the commissioner shall exclude the tied publications randomly.

   (f)   A contract awarded pursuant to this section may contain such penalties, rewards or other inducements as the commissioner or the corporation counsel considers necessary to further the purposes of this article, shall provide that a contractor forfeit any multiple newsracks that it fails to maintain in good repair and free from graffiti and may provide for arbitration as a means for settling disputes arising under the contract. Any such contract may include a provision, in a form subject to the approval of the corporation counsel, for indemnification of the contractor by the city against claims and liabilities arising out of the contractor's removal of newsracks under this article. The contract shall prohibit the contractor from charging any fee to publications distributed from a multiple newsrack.

(Added Coun. J. 4-1-98, p. 65351; Amend Coun. J. 6-9-99, p. 5442; Amend Coun. J. 7-19-00, p. 38206, § 1; Amend Coun. J. 11-19-08, p. 47220, Art. VII, § 1; Amend Coun. J. 11-17-10, p. 106597, Art. IX, § 7; Amend Coun. J. 11-26-13, p. 67481, Art. I, § 21)