TITLE
ADOPT FINDINGS JUSTIFYING AN EXCEPTION TO THE COMPETITIVE BID PROCESS AND AUTHORIZE THE CITY MANAGER TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE HOUSTON-GALVESTON AREA COUNCIL FOR THE PURCHASE OF RADIOS FOR FY2016-2017
recommended action
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the City Council approve a resolution to:
1. Approve findings which support and justify an exception to the competitive bid process and authorize the use of the cooperative purchasing agreement with the Houston-Galveston Area Council for the purchase of Motorola radio equipment in an amount not to exceed $1,879,889.
2. Appropriate $363,440 from the Radio Internal Service Fund 503 fund balance; and
3. Authorize the City Manager to take appropriate actions to carry out the purpose and intent of the resolution.
BODY
Summary
Four City Departments use radio equipment as a main source for field communication: Fire, Municipal Utilities, Police, and Public Works. The Information Technology (IT) Department is responsible for supporting the radio equipment, including maintaining an active and accurate inventory, purchasing replacement equipment, and providing technical expertise for equipment selection. The City is in the process of overhauling its radio inventory due to many years of delayed maintenance and replacement. The significant cost of replacing obsolete and irreparable equipment requires a phased approach. The first phase was approved by Council on July 21, 2015. The second phase is now being presented to Council for consideration. This request seeks Council’s authorization to access the terms of the cooperative purchasing agreement with Houston-Galveston Area Council for the purchase of radio equipment from Motorola Solutions in an amount not to exceed $1,879,889.
DISCUSSION
Background
The City owns and operates a private 13-channel radio communication system utilized by the Fire, Municipal Utilities (MUD), Police, and Public Works departments. The primary function of this system is for public safety purposes. It is to ensure that Police Officers and Firefighters have radio communication capabilities among individuals, vehicles and dispatch/command centers. As part of the overall radio system, the City maintains nearly 1,300 portables (hand held or worn by the employee) and mobile radios (installed in vehicles). Expenditures for Public Safety communication technologies are managed by IT via the Radio Internal Service Fund (ISF). As the City’s fiscal crisis began to take shape, the purchase of new radios was deferred in order to reduce the contributions to the Radio ISF and lessen the burden on the City’s general fund. The general fund is the primary source of Public Safety ISF funding for labor and equipment.
Recognizing the high turnover of City staff and the reduction in funds flowing into the Radio ISF, IT engaged the services of a communications expert (Trott Communications Group, Inc.) to conduct a physical inventory audit of all City radio equipment and prepare a host of recommendations for bringing the outdated equipment back into working order without an undue burden on the general fund. Trott Communications Group, Inc., is an industry leader in wireless communications, engineering and consulting for public safety. On July 21, 2015, City Council adopted a motion to accept the recommendations presented in the City of Stockton Radio Equipment Inventory Report by Trott Communication Group, Inc. (Attachment A - Staff Report, Attachment B - Trott Report) and purchased the FY 15-16 radios for MUD, Police and Public Works based on the report’s recommendation. The Trott Report indicated that a majority of the City’s radio equipment exceeded or was near end of life, with limited or no support available and recommended a significant number be scheduled for replacement as soon as possible.
Trott recommended replacing 1,019 radios as soon as possible. Staff’s response to this was to establish replacement priorities within each department. Council’s action on July 21, 2015 addressed replacement of the majority of obsolete and unrepairable radios for MUD, Police, and Public Works. The Fire Department was not included in this purchase because they were pending a possible grant award to fund the replacements.
The table below represents the July 21, 2015 Council approved replacement purchase for MUD, Police, and Public Works:
Table 1 - Proposal Presented to Council on July 21, 2015
|
|
|
FY 15/16 |
FY 16/17 |
FY 17/18 |
Totals |
|
Dept / Radio Type |
Funding Source |
Quantity |
Quantity |
Quantity |
Quantity |
|
MUD/PW Portable |
ISF |
30 |
0 |
17 |
47 |
|
MUD Mobile |
ISF |
18 |
19 |
34 |
71 |
|
Police Portable |
Meas A / ISF |
342 |
150 |
90 |
582 |
|
Police Mobile |
Meas A / ISF |
70 |
60 |
26 |
156 |
|
Annual Totals |
Radio Count |
460 |
229 |
167 |
856 |
|
Annual Totals |
Estimated Cost |
$1,500,000 |
$887,109 |
$572,817 |
$2,959,926 |
The purchase of these 460 radios has stabilized the radio program for MUD, Police, and Public Works. Additionally, IT has instituted a system-wide radio equipment management system (REMS) which allows for instant updates for radio assignments, locations, maintenance schedules, and repair history.
Present Situation
Fire Department
Although the Trott Report indicated the Fire Department needed to replace nearly their entire radio inventory as soon as possible, due to budgetary constraints, the City developed a plan to replace the radios for the Department. The plan called to replace the radios in FY 2015-16 through the award of grant funding. However, the City was not awarded the grant and therefore staff is proposing to purchase the radios to meet Fire Department needs. The table below shows the proposed schedule for Fire Department radio replacements.
Table 2 - Fire Department Three-Year Radio Purchase Plan
|
|
|
FY 15/16 |
FY 16/17 |
FY 17/18 |
Totals |
|
Radio Type |
Funding Source |
Quantity |
Quantity |
Quantity |
Quantity |
|
Fire Portable |
FD GF / ISF |
0 |
106 |
0 |
106 |
|
Fire Mobile & Base Station |
ISF |
0 |
42 |
0 |
42 |
|
Annual Totals |
Radio Count |
0 |
148 |
0 |
148 |
|
Annual Totals |
Estimated Cost |
$0 |
$759,925 |
0 |
$759,925 |
The radios requested will be added to the current inventory of 60 units which are currently within their 7-10 year replacement cycle. When the purchase of the 148 replacement radios is completed, the Fire Department’s total inventory of 208 radios will be compliant with current needs.
This purchase will bring the Fire Department inventory to acceptable operational standards. As part of this strategy, Fire is proposing to reduce the overall number of radios from 280 to 208 due to reduction of staffing and efficiencies in equipment selection. This purchase strategy provides the City with incentives from Motorola for making a bulk purchase.
Police, Public Works & Municipal Utilities Department
On July 21, 2015, Council approved the first phase of the replacement plan (Table 1). Since then, the recommended number of units have been updated in consideration to a shift in operational needs for the Police Department. These new numbers will provide for enhanced inventory control and availability. There was an increase of 40 portable radios and 37 mobile radios for the Police Department.
The proposed request for Municipal Utilities Department and Public Works Department is consistent with the proposal presented and approved on July 21, 2015 by Council (Table 1).
The chart below illustrates the revised proposed purchase plan over three years through fiscal year 17-18.
Table 3 - Overall Three Year Radio Purchase Plan
|
|
|
FY 15/16 |
FY 16/17 |
FY 17/18 |
Totals |
|
Dept / Radio Type |
Funding Source |
Quantity |
Quantity |
Quantity |
Quantity |
|
Fire Portable |
ISF |
0 |
106 |
0 |
106 |
|
Fire Mobile & Base Station |
ISF |
0 |
42 |
0 |
42 |
|
MUD/PW Portable |
ISF |
30 |
|
17 |
47 |
|
MUD Mobile |
ISF |
18 |
19 |
34 |
71 |
|
Police Portable |
Meas A / ISF |
342 |
190 |
150 |
682 |
|
Police Mobile |
Meas A / ISF |
79 |
97 |
26 |
202 |
|
Annual Totals |
Radio Count |
469 |
454 |
227 |
1,150 |
|
Annual Totals |
Estimated Cost |
$1,500,000 |
$1,879,889 |
$850,000 |
$4,229,889 |
Infrastructure Upgrades
While the recommended action requested does not include the purchase of infrastructure equipment, it is important to mention that in addition to the radios, the City’s infrastructure that supports radio communication is over 13 years old and replacement of the majority of equipment is imminent. Over the next four years most of the infrastructure will need to be replaced or upgraded before maintenance support and spare parts are no longer available. The Trott reported confirmed this need and made recommendations.
Given this three-year radio purchasing plan is underway, the development of a plan for infrastructure replacement is now a priority for public safety communications. Included in this objective are dispatch consoles for the Police Department, radio channel equipment on towers and base stations, microwave equipment and the engineering services necessary to install and tune the systems. All radios to be purchased or that have been purchased in the past several years are designed to work with any potential equipment upgrades. The potential costs for infrastructure upgrades are estimated to exceed three to five million dollars over the next four fiscal years. To address this pending need, Information Technology has contracted with Trott to perform a Phase 2 assessment, which will focus on the options and opportunities during the necessary upgrade. Trott’s Phase 2 report will confirm the current estimate, as well as, identify the costs and benefits for choosing to join the County with a regional trunked radio solution.
The second phase evaluation is scheduled for completion within the next several months. The recommendations for a long term infrastructure upgrade will then be presented to Council for consideration.
Purchase of Motorola equipment
Stockton has utilized Motorola radio system equipment to support Public Safety for over 30 years. It is necessary to deploy the same type of equipment across operational assignments to reduce user error, synchronize training, and to reduce maintenance costs and required expertise to service multiple systems. As part of the plan to create interoperability for all Public Safety providers in San Joaquin County, the County purchased a Motorola M-Core, the backend of a trunked radio system. Motorola equipment is designed specifically to work as a complete ecosystem to allow all agencies to coordinate activities when necessary. Stockton chose to also use Motorola since they are the only vendor who can provide all the features needed by Police and Fire within the ecosystem. There is no other product that would seamlessly integrate with this infrastructure and allow for interoperability. This is consistent with the County-wide Radio Master plan.
Findings
Stockton Municipal Code section 3.68.070 provides that the City Council can authorize the award of a contract without the requirement of competitive bidding in those cases where facts exist that support and justify the exception. Below are proposed findings which, if adopted by Council, constitute sufficient grounds for making such an exception:
1. The Houston-Galveston Area Council has established a cooperative purchase agreement with Motorola, Inc. as part of a cooperative purchasing process for the purpose of pooling various agencies’ purchasing volume to directly reduce the cost of radio systems.
2. By purchasing radio goods and services under the cooperative purchase agreement, the City will realize a combined savings of 33% off retail as a result of bulk purchase and trade-in.
3. The bid specifications used by the Houston-Galveston Area Council have been assessed by Purchasing as compatible to the City of Stockton standards with regards to the formal process, lowest pricing, awarded contract, and piggy-back able language allowing public agencies to avail of such process and pricing.
4. Motorola equipment has been the standard for Public Safety radios Stockton for more that 30-years. As part of the development of the San Joaquin County trunked radio system, the County has established Motorola equipment as preferred to eliminate risk as the systems are synchronized with the Motorola M-Core radio control hardware. Trott recommended the City follow the County recommendations for maintaining specific radio features and specifications that are required for operation on their system.
FINANCIAL SUMMARY
The total cost for the purchases are summarized in the table below with the recommended funding sources:
|
FY 2016-17 |
|
|
|
Fire Radio Replacement Equipment - Total cost = $759,925 148 Radios - average cost per unit is $5,135 |
|
|
Funded by: |
Radio Fund (503-0000) Appropriation from fund balance |
$274,925 |
|
|
Radio Fund (503-5201) Replacement budget |
$285,000 |
|
|
Fire Department (010-2660) Dispatch budget |
$200,000 |
|
MUD Radio Replacement Equipment - Total cost = $42,327 19 Radios - average cost per unit is $2,228 |
|
|
Funded by: |
Radio Fund (503-5201) Replacement budget |
$42,327 |
|
Police Radio Replacement Equipment - Total cost = $788,515 210 Radios - average cost per unit is $3,755 |
|
|
Funded by: |
Radio Fund (503-0000) Appropriation from fund balance |
$88,515 |
|
|
Radio Fund (503-5201) Replacement budget |
$700,000 |
|
Police Radio New Equipment - Total cost = $289,122 77 Radios - average cost per unit is $3,755 |
|
|
Funded by: |
General Fund Measure A (014-2422) |
$289,122 |
|
Total FY 2016-17 Cost |
|
$1,879,889 |
The costs identified in the above table consist of the quoted price from the vendor plus sales tax. The quote from the vendor does not include sales tax because the City has opted to remit the taxes directly to the State of California in order to receive the full portion of the sales tax rather than a proportional share of the county tax pool. With the recommended appropriation of $363,440 from the Radio ISF fund balance, sufficient funds will be available in FY 2016-17 for the $1,879,889 purchase.
Staff have negotiated significant cost savings by purchasing in bulk. With Council approval of the FY2016-17 purchase, the City will receive a cost savings of $241,425.
Attachment A - Staff Report from the July 21, 2015, City Council Meeting
Attachment B - City of Stockton Radio Equipment Inventory Report (Trott Report)
Attachment C - Fire Radio Inventory Detail - July 2016
Attachment D - Houston-Galveston Area Council- Motorola Solutions Inc.
Attachment E - Motorola Solutions Inc./Delta Wireless Letter
Attachment F - Agreement between City of Stockton and Motorola Solutions, Inc. for Purchase of Public Safety Radios