Administration - Nick Fleischhacker, Deputy Director of Public Works
Title
Title
Approve 2022 and 2023 Public Works Capital Equipment Expenses for General Fund, Water Fund, Sewer Fund and Storm Fund
end
Executive Summary
Council is requested to approve the purchase of capital equipment items which meet the purchasing threshold for council approval. Purchases will be acquired using funds from both the 2022 and 2023 council adopted capital budgets. The list of capital purchases is attached.
Background
In the adoption of the capital budgets for both 2022 and 2023, Council appropriated funding for the city to acquire capital items that will sustain the current service levels established by council guidance. Pursuant to the City Charter, Sec. 6.05, staff is requesting Council approval for the purchase of the items outlined in the attachment. All the items listed will be purchased through the State Cooperative Purchasing Program, Sourcewell, a Metro-area cooperative purchasing program, and in the open market from various vendors.
Due to ongoing supply chain disruption sourcing equipment and supplies has been challenging. Significant commodity inflation, excessive lead times, and very short purchasing windows has required staff to continuously monitor the market, negotiate with vendors, and make immediate purchasing decisions to lock in a quoted price.
These purchases will be acquired via one of the three vendor categories are listed below:
• Cooperative Purchasing Agreements - Purchases from these platforms have been competitively bid and vetted through a third party.
• Single Source Vendor - Single source vendors are required when specialized products are needed. Sourcing these products can only come from a single vendor whom, either exclusively services this geographical area, or has a proprietary agreement to sell the product or service.
• Open Market (New or Used) - In the case that the cooperative purchasing platforms will either not honor their contracts or have stopped the programs all together due to shortages or unreliable pricing markets still will be utilizing the open market to source equipment
Due to short purchasing windows for equipment and potential 24 month plus lead times on products Public Works is asking for council approval of a program-level not-to-exceed amounts for the purchases in the table below. This will ensure staff are able to purchase the equipment within the short four-to-14-day windows offered by vendors.
|
Fund |
Capital Total |
|
General Fund |
$1,732,000 |
|
Sanitary Sewer |
$1,940,000 |
|
Storm Sewer |
$815,000 |
|
Water |
$1,125,000 |
|
Grand Total |
$5,612,000 |
Strategic Plan Relationship
This action relates directly to the City of Blaine Strategic Plan Item No. 6 - Well Maintained Infrastructure.
Board/Commission Review
N/A
Financial Impact
All equipment items have been listed in information provided to the City Council at previous budget discussion work sessions and were adopted as part of the 2022 and 2023 capital budgets.
In total, sufficient funding was appropriated in the capital budgets for the selected items. By adopting a not-to-exceed program-level approach, council would approve staff to use savings from one purchase to make up the budget shortfall on another piece of equipment that has a short purchase window.
Vendors have indicated a 15-30% increase in multiple common commodities beginning January 1, 2023. Approving these purchases prior to January 1 will allow the city to be at the head of the production requests and take advantage of any year-end incentives from the manufacturers.
Public Outreach/Input
N/A
Staff Recommendation
By motion, authorize the purchase of the 2022/2023 capital equipment as listed in the attachment, with total purchases not to exceed fund totals budgeted (and shown in the chart above).
Attachment List
N/A