The Long Beach City Council awarded a $9.5 million contract Tuesday to a company that will oversee operations at the city’s 25 parking garages and lots. Following the decision, however, several council members said they were unaware that a former executive at the firm, LAZ Parking, was sentenced to federal prison last year in a Chicago bribe scheme.

The council on Tuesday was made aware, however, of a second criminal allegation last year involving the firm’s work with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which canceled its contract with the company after an investigation found three employees stole millions in state revenue.

As part of a settlement agreement reached in July with the state of Massachusetts, LAZ Parking agreed to pay $1.1 million to the state and $4.5 million to MBTA, according to the Boston Globe.

At the time, company executives described the alleged theft as an isolated incident carried out by “dishonest” employees. Officials also said it does not reflect the company culture, an explanation Long Beach staff on Tuesday said they felt comfortable with.

At no point during the vetting process, however, was there any mention of a separate Chicago case in which a former LAZ government relations executive pleaded guilty to taking $90,000 in bribes in exchange for steering the city toward a $22 million dollar contract with a firm that would supply and install private parking meters in Chicago, which LAZ would then manage. Philip “Felipe” Oropesa, who resigned after the investigation was made public, was sentenced to six months in federal prison in September 2016, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Craig Beck, public works director for Long Beach, said he learned of the Chicago incident on the Friday before council approved the contract, at which point his office had already issued a staff report and a memo disclosing the Massachusetts incident. It was too late to include the Chicago case in the documents, he said.

But why it was not brought to the council’s attention prior to the vote Tuesday evening is concerning to some elected officials.

“Had I known about it, I would have asked about it and I would have factored the response into my analysis,” Councilwoman Suzie Price said, adding that she did not want to speculate as to whether that would have changed her vote on the matter.

Councilman Daryl Supernaw agreed, saying, “We always want full transparency on any issue coming to our City Council. Nondisclosure puts the council in a very awkward position.”

After inquiring about the Massachusetts incident on Tuesday evening, Price suggested a friendly amendment to the item that would require staff to return to council for direction should the city discover any abuse of the contract terms.

“If we start to see that, which I don’t expect, then council will have the opportunity to inquire further and do a deeper dive,” she said at the meeting.

“At this juncture,” she continued, “I have not lost trust or confidence in the vendor based on what I know, but I do think that they are probably on notice that they should take more preventative efforts to make sure this kind of moral turpitude conduct isn’t being conducted in their name.”

The five other city council members who voted on the contract — Lena Gonzalez, Jeannine Pearce, Stacy Mungo, Al Austin and Rex Richardson — did not respond to a request for comment on the issue. Councilmembers Dee Andrews and Roberto Uranga were absent from Tuesday’s meeting.

In considering whether to award the three-year contract to LAZ Parking, Beck said staff conducted a thorough evaluation of two finalists — the current operator, Standard Parking, and the awardee — through a multi-departmental panel that included reference checks, interviews and presentations.

As part of the bid process, applicants are asked to disclose any recent litigation the company has been involved in, hence, the disclosure of the Massachusetts case. The incident in Chicago was not subject to disclosure because “it involved a court action against an individual formerly employed by our company,” LAZ Parking spokeswoman Mary Brennan Coursey said Thursday in an emailed statement.

Both the city attorney and the city manager said they were unaware of the Chicago case before Tuesday’s meeting.

One change born out of the process, Beck said, was a provision that requires LAZ Parking to acquire an insurance policy in place to protect the city against any potential loss of revenue or harm.

“I would trust this vendor or any other vendor to do their due diligence to ensure they were hiring employees who were honest and truthful, and follow procedures, but if by chance that doesn’t happen, I wanted to ensure we have something in place,” he said.

In a statement made during Tuesday’s City Council meeting, John Svendblad, senior vice president at LAZ Parking, said the team “worked very hard to put our best foot forward” during the bid process.

“We’ve been completely transparent and full of integrity throughout this process,” he said, “and we want to bring that same level of integrity and passion to the city of Long Beach.”

The city’s 25 parking garages and lots, most of which are concentrated in the downtown and the coastal areas, generate approximately $9 million in revenue annually.

City Attorney Charles Parkin said via email on Thursday that his office has not yet received a request from public works to prepare a parking contract, though once it is prepared, it could be a matter of days or weeks before it’s signed.