GARDEN GROVE : Bus Shelter Contract Killed, Bond Seized

The City Council has terminated its contracts with a firm that provides bus shelters for failing to make more than $44,000 in monthly payments to the city.

The council voted earlier this week to ask Bustop Shelters of California Inc. to remove its 85 shelters from all city streets. City officials also seized a $42,500 bond that Bustop had posted and said they would use the money to pay off the company’s debts.

Meanwhile, City Atty. Stuart B. Scudder said the city would follow up this week’s action by going to bankruptcy court for permission to revoke the contract and retain the bond money on grounds that the bus shelter firm failed to fulfill its side of the agreement.

Bustop, which provides and sells advertising space on the shelters, had agreed to make minimum payments of $75 per month per shelter at 50 bus stops and a minimum of $90 per month per shelter at 35 additional stops. However, the company filed for bankruptcy in January and has been unable to meet the agreed-upon payment schedule.

Robert Bicher, chief executive officer for Metro Display Advertising, which does business as Bustop Shelters, said he hopes to continue negotiations with the city to resolve the matter.

Bicher said efforts to reach a compromise with city representatives were continuing but had been unsuccessful.

He said he asked city officials two weeks ago to either waive the company’s payments until August for 35 of the less productive bus shelters or to allow the company to abandon them entirely.

However, City Council members said that waiving the payments would amount to a gift of public money and instead scheduled a public hearing Tuesday to discuss whether to revoke the contract.

City Manager George Tindall said the city plans to entertain bids from other companies to operate bus-stop shelters in the city.