HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000 02-29 SpecialMERIDIAN CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING FEBRUARY 29, 2000
The special meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:30 p.m. by Mayor Robert Corrie on Tuesday, February 29, 2000.
Members present: Robert Corrie, Tammy deWeerd, Cherie McCandless, Ron Anderson, Keith Bird
Others present: Ken Bowers, Joe Silva, Rod Shaul., San McEvoy, Brian Zimmerman, John Overton, Lance Smith
Corrie: Being that it’s 6:30, I’ll start the special meeting on February 29, 2000, at 6:30 p.m. The items of discussion will be the bid results for fire engine and pumper with recommendations
for approval by Fire Chief Kenny Bowers, and then we will go into executive session relative to acquiring real property and discussion on that purchase.
Item 3. Bid results for fire engine / pumper with recommendation for approval by Fire Chief Ken Bowers:
Corrie: So, with Council’s approval, I have been requested to have No. 3 first and then go into executive session since the Fire Department’s here now. If I hear no objections, we
will go ahead and have Kenny present bid results on the fire engine.
Bowers: Good evening, Mayor Corrie, Council members. We have been discussing about bidding a new fire engine for several months. The engine that we purchased in ’95, ’94, has 50,000
miles on it already as we have more and more emergency calls through the years, we will be putting quite a few more miles on our trucks. We have tried to work with Councilman Ron Anderson
on trying to come up with a schedule of bringing in new trucks so that our trucks do not cost us – start nickel and diming us as we go, so we’re going to try to get on a schedule every
so many years for an engine replacement. Years ago, engines would last us 20, 25 years, and we would only have 20,000 miles on them when we were done, but now, as we’re getting closer
to 2,000 calls a year, we will be adding miles and miles on these engines. So we put out a bid for a new fire truck, pumper, engine, whatever you want to call it, and we received two
bids back. One from Pierce and one from Boise Mobile. The bids from Pierce come in at $326,200. The bid from Boise Mobile was $267,966. As we go down through the list there, Pierce
gives a deduction for a prepaid chassis. Boise Mobile also gives us a prepaid chassis credit. Balance paid on delivery, they will give us a credit of $1500 at Pierce. That’s if we
go back to the factory and give them the check right at that time, they will give us a credit. When the chassis is delivered to Pierce and ready to put on the boxes, the pump, the whole
works, they will also give us a credit, also, for that, and I don’t see that down here on this one. If we do not get a performance bond, it’s $750 credit. If we go back and
drive the truck back here ourselves, it’s $2,000 credit. The final line items on Pierce, $317,220. As you can look over on the Boise Mobile side, they bid it as options in their bid.
We did not want it that way, but they bid it out as options. Their options come up $36,138. The total price on the Boise Mobile truck, $298,559. There is a difference of $18,661
as you can see. After going through the specs and the bids of both Pierce and Boise Mobile, we found that we were missing quite a few items in the Boise Mobile bid that would bring
this price up; such as, hosebed dividers. We speced out three, they only speced out one in the bid. We asked for certain valves because our other trucks, our other four trucks have
the same four valves, and they did not spec out those valves. So by the time we turn around and add the other prices into this at $18,000, it’s going to be quite smaller on the bid.
I have Assistant Chief Silva here, and also driver/operator Rod Shaul here. Those two have worked on this bid spec tremendously for many hours the last two, three days, trying to get
this stuff straightened out for us. Also on the Committee was John Overton and Ed Pierce, also Lance Smith. They put a lot of hours into this bid spec and paperwork for us. We would
recommend to going with the Pierce. There are a few reasons for that. We have four Pierces right now at this time. Same pumps, same valving, basically the same equipment as what we
have speced in years past. We believe that possibly we get another style of a truck, the valving that we have, we have already built re-built kits, we bought valvings for the others.
We would not be able to use those, possibly, I can’t say yes or no for sure, yet. That would be Rod and Joe could answer that. Possibly we could not use that equipment on the Boise
Mobile truck. We speced out a certain size of tires on our trucks, and we did not get that with Boise Mobile, so we would have to add in extra dollars on the Boise Mobile for the tires
that we spaced out. Would there be any questions from you of Joe, Assistant Chief Silva, and Rod Shaul at this time?
Anderson: I had a question. I had this hand-written note from you, I guess it was the day of the bid openings, and I showed $303,000 for Boise Mobile and $304,000 for Pierce, and that’s
different from the numbers that you have here. Is that adding the $5,575 back to it or something? $1,000 apart at the –
Bowers: They were, and we didn’t have a calculator. We were just freelancing, and we had instead of a $1500 credit on the balance due on delivery from Pierce, we had a $15,000 credit
down there. So we were totally off on that price there. That’s where we came from. Roger Crane from Boise Mobile had told us that there were probably $37,000, $38,000 in the options,
and it did turn out to be $36,000. Those figures that you have there are wrong. Thank you.
Bird: Mr. Mayor, Kenny, I take it that Pierce was the only one who bid per specs. Boise Mobile, what you’re telling me, did not bid for the spec book?
Bowers: Mayor Corrie, Councilman Keith Bird and Council members, that is correct. We went through line item by line item, word for word, and Pierce was
the only one who really bid the whole spec that we wanted. Boise Mobile put in different options that they thought would be all right, but it just wasn’t that we – we didn’t want those
so we didn’t spec them in.
Anderson: Couple more questions. The nonperformance on the bond, I’m assuming that’s a bid bond that would insure us if they construct the truck according to our specifications, why
would we want to eliminate that?
Bowers: At this time, that was just in the bid specs. That’s how they wrote that. Talking with Roger and Gary from Pierce and Boise Mobile, neither one of them really thought that
we should take that out on either side, really. I don’t know if Rod could answer that any better. Come on up here. Rod Shaul, operator/driver.
Shaul: I kind of left that out because of legalities. I didn’t know where we stood on that other than the fact that Pierce Manufacturing has been in business since 1917 or something
like that, and they have a good reputation, and they really do a good job with their customer service. I didn’t feel like it was going to be a threat to us that we wouldn’t get what
we paid for with them.
Anderson: I just think it’s good insurance; it guarantees if we are unsatisfied that they will have to perform for us. Then I had a comment on the drive-out allowance. I guess my
preference would be to leave that in there and have them deliver the truck because they’re still responsible until the time that it’s delivered to your doorstep. If anything happens
on the way out or if there’s mechanical problems, then they’re responsible for fixing those or accidents. It really is not a true $2000 savings because then you have to find airfare
and pay motel fees to have somebody drive that out anyway. I guess my preference would be to leave that in there, have them deliver the truck here. We do an acceptance test when it’s
here and then we bring it on line and accept the truck.
Bowers: Mayor Corrie, Councilman Anderson and City Council members, we wouldn’t have a problem with that either. That’s just the way it’s been in the past that I know of, and we’ve
always went back and picked them up ourselves. We can sure do that; no problem.
Corrie: Kenny, do you know how much it costs us to do that the last two times?
Bowers: If I remember right, I wasn’t happy the way it was done last time because our firemen flew down there and drove all the way back without stopping. I didn’t think that was correct
to do it that way in case one of them got tired or sleepy and crashed or something. I didn’t like the way it was done last time, but they wanted to get back home. I realize that.
I believe six years ago, I thought it cost us $1200 or $1100 or something like that.
Corrie: I remember that. I agree with Ron. It’s not worth the time or money, really, and the non-performance bond, for what it’s worth, I think we should leave it in there, too.
Bowers: That would be fine.
Corrie: Does Pierce have the hosebed dividers and the valves and everything that you –
Bowers: Exactly. Mayor Corrie, as Councilman Bird asked, they did everything by spec that we put in there. We did find one problem with it, and Rod and Joe took care of that with
Gary, the salesman from Pierce.
Anderson: If I understand this chart right, the options as specified, the $36,138, that would be to get the truck actually how we had speced it out, and that would be in addition to
the $298,000, so our total would actually be $334,697 if we went with Boise Mobile. So it actually makes Pierce a bit cheaper?
Bowers: No, it doesn’t. Mayor Corrie, Councilman Anderson and City Council members, the $267,996 at the top is their base price. Then you take $5575 away from that for the pre-chassis,
and then the options, they considered them options, I believe there are 44 of them or something like that. Their options come up to $36,138, but the options that they put in there,
a lot of the options were not the ones that we speced. So if we did spec, if they did bring it up to spec, yes, it probably would be more, but their final total was $298,559, Ron, with
the options added in. Their options.
Anderson: So they’re roughly $19,000 cheaper, $18,000.
Bowers: $18,661, yes.
Corrie: When you add in the bed divider and valves and tires, how much does that make it?
Bowers: Bed dividers are at least $1,000; tires, you’re probably looking at possibly $100 to $150 per tire, and you’ve got two, four, six tires; the valving, I don't have any idea.
I couldn’t give you a price on valving, Mayor Corrie, what the difference would be.
Corrie: But you did say that Boise Mobile Equipment didn’t follow the specs.
Bowers: That is correct.
Corrie: Anything else from Council? Questions?
Bowers: Also, Mayor Corrie and City Council members, I forgot to bring this up at first. Steve Bravo and Mike Ingram are here from the rural commissioners. They wanted to be on this,
too, because they’re paying 32 percent of this. Debbie Drake had another meeting so she wasn’t able to come. They have just speced out a new tender, also, so we will be getting a new
tender also. We speced it out with Nampa Fire. So we’ll be getting a new tender and an engine. What we’ll be doing is we’ll be getting rid of possibly two pieces of equipment, we’ll
be selling them. The rural will be selling one of the big tenders, we will be selling 305. It’s a 1972 Ford, so we’ll either be selling it or possibly now, we’ve talked about maybe
keeping it and letting the Explorers, our Explorer posts use it, but I haven’t gotten to talk to Ron about that one.
Bird: Mr. Mayor, I think –
Corrie: Mike?
Ingram: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the Council. My recommendation, and I have the go-ahead from our other Commissioner here, as well as I have talked to Commissioner Drake
about this, too. I am full-time employed by Boise City Fire Department. Every third day I drive a BME piece of apparatus. I would recommend across the board we go with the Pierce.
It is a far, far better piece of equipment. We will have far, far less problems down the road with the Pierce. I’ve driven both manufacturers, and I would prefer and recommend the
Pierce hands down.
Corrie: For the record, that was Mike Ingram from the rural.
Bird: Mr. Mayor. Actually, the cost is $326,000, too. This $317,220 doesn’t mean a thing, right? I don’t – my personal opinion is if they didn’t bid the specs, their bid shouldn’t
have been accepted.
Bowers: Mayor Corrie and City Council members, I do know Rod and Joe has probably put in 20, 30 hours just trying to decipher Boise Mobile’s spec. It was just – wasn’t really written
so you could follow it. It did create some problems for us.
Nichols: Mayor Corrie and members of the Council, all the law requires you to do is accept the “lowest responsible bidder.” If Boise Mobile Equipment did not meet the specs, they are
not a responsible bidder which leaves you with one responsible bidder.
Corrie: That was one of my questions, the reason that I asked that for the record. Thank you.
Bowers: Mayor Corrie and City Council, also, the fire engine that we’ve speced out is exactly like the Dash that we bought six years ago with newer, finer stuff on
it, of course. In six years they’ve changed it. We have got 50,000 miles on the old one, and like I said, the only thing that we’ve really changed on it is tires, of course, oil, filter,
stuff like that.
Corrie: Do you have anything else, Kenny, to present to the Council?
Bowers: I don’t have anything at this time. Joe Silva, do you have anything? Rodney Shaul?
Shaul: This is a point of clarification. We spent probably in the neighborhood of 50 to 60 hours trying to decipher the BME bid, and we have exceptions, a list of about 96 items that
are either exceptions or need clarification on. So if others meet spec or not, that’s up to you. But we’ve spent multiple hours on it, and we come up with about 96 items.
Bird: I wouldn’t waste my time next time.
Corrie: Anybody else want to ask any questions? Hearing none, I’ll entertain a motion from Mr. Anderson.
Anderson: Mr. Mayor, before I make a motion, I would like to clarify for the City Council in our budget process what we’ve been doing is each year we’ve been allocating a certain amount
of funds to go toward the purchase of a fire truck, and the last total that I’ve seen on those, on the fire truck funds, is totally I think there’s $700-some thousand dollars in there
at that point. In this year’s budget, we only allocated $150,000 to put into that fund, and it was, I guess, a misunderstanding on Kenny’s and my part on how the auditors want to show
this, but if you purchase the actual fire truck during this year, you have to budget the entire amount. So if this bid is accepted at the $326,200, there will have to be a budget adjustment
later in the year for the difference between the $150,000 that we budgeted and so it’ll leave about another $176,200 difference that’ll have to be added to the Fire Department budget
to pay for that.
Bird: Mr. Mayor. Then when we do our re-budget, when we budget for 2000-2001, we take that fund balance extra and put back out of the fire fund and bring it back into the general;
is that not right?
Anderson: Right. We should take that from the fire truck fund and then –
Bowers: Mayor Corrie and City Council members, if we get this ordered right away, we are looking at a September, last week of September delivery, possibly. It could all come in this
budget period or it might be here October 1st. So we might be kind of working on two budgets here. I wanted to let you guys be clear on that, too. It might possibly be on two budgets.
Anderson: So you’ll need to track that really close and try to pin that down as early as possible so when we do a budget adjustment we would know how much to allocate. I would, therefore,
make a motion that we award the bid for a new fire truck to Pierce Manufacturing Company as the apparent only responsible bidder in the amount of $326,200.
Bird: Second.
Corrie: Motion made and seconded to accept the Pierce engine bid of $326,200. Any further discussion? Hearing none, roll-call vote.
Roll-call: deWeerd, aye; McCandless, aye; Anderson, aye; Bird, aye.
Item 1. Executive Session as per Idaho State Code 67-2345 (c) relative to acquisition of real property:
Corrie: Okay. The next item is to have an executive session per Idaho State Code 67-2345 (c) relative to acquisition of real property. Do I hear a motion to that effect?
Bird: Mr. Mayor. I move that we go into Executive Session per Idaho State Code 67-2345 (c).
deWeerd: Second.
Corrie: Motion is made and seconded to go into Executive Session. Roll-call vote, please.
Roll-call: deWeerd, aye; Anderson, aye; McCandless, aye; Bird, aye
(Entered into Executive Session at 6:57 p.m.)
Corrie: I’ll entertain a motion to come out of Executive Session.
Bird: So moved.
Anderson: Second.
Corrie: Motion made and seconded to come out of Executive Session. All those in favor say aye.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES
Corrie: Let the record show that no positive decision was made in the Executive Session. Okay. I’ll open the – I guess we had better close the – I’ll entertain a motion to close the
Executive Session.
Bird: Mr. Mayor, I move that we close the special Council meeting.
Anderson: Second.
Corrie: Motion made and seconded to close the special Council meeting. Any further discussion? All those in favor of the motion say aye.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:13 P.M.
(TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
APPROVE:
ROBERT D. CORRIE, MAYOR
ATTEST:
WILLIAM G. BERG, JR., CITY CLERK