City of Corona
Staff Report
400 S. Vicentia Ave.
Corona, CA 92882
File #: 22-0521
REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION
DATE: 06/15/2022
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Public Works Department
SUBJECT:
Award of Contract to Scansys, Inc. for the installation of equipment for the Fire Station Alerting System Installation Project, No. 2021-22.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The Corona Fire Department purchased fire station alerting equipment from US Digital Designs (USDD) through a cooperative purchasing agreement for the purpose of improving response times and providing an automated and redundant pathway to alert fire department units to respond to emergencies. Approval of this contract will provide for the installation and commissioning of the system at all seven fire stations.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
That the City Council:
a. Award Notice Inviting Bids 22-068CA for the Fire Station Alerting System Installation Project, No. 2021-22 to Scansys, Inc. of Buena Park, CA as the lowest responsive, responsible bidder, for the total not to exceed the amount of $159,475.
b. Authorize the City Manager, or his designee, to execute a contract with Scansys, Inc. for $159,475.
c. Authorize the City Manager, or his designee, to negotiate and execute non-substantive extensions, change orders, and amendments up to 20% or $31,895 as authorized in Corona Municipal Code Section 3.08.050(H).
d. Authorize the Purchasing Manager to issue a Purchase Order to Scansys, Inc. in the amount of $159,475.
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File #: 22-0521
BACKGROUND & HISTORY:
The City’s Strategic Plan contains six goals, including ensuring that Corona is a safe community. This goal is achieved by protecting the community’s quality of life by providing services to keep the community safe. In order to achieve this goal, specific objectives were identified, including improving emergency service response times to meet or beat national benchmarks. In the Corona Fire Department’s 2021 Annual Report, ninety (90) percent of fire response times were 7 minutes and 20 seconds or less, and seventy-four (74) percent of response times hit the target of 6 minutes or less.
The Fire Department’s overall goal is to achieve emergency medical response times of 5 minutes and 30 seconds or less 90% of the time. An integral part of achieving this goal is rapidly and simultaneously alerting and deploying crews to incidents.
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is a global, self-funded, non-profit organization that is devoted to eliminating death, injury, property, and economic loss due to fire, electrical, and related hazards. The NFPA primarily achieves these goals through public education, advocacy, and the development of codes and standards that are designed to minimize the risk and effects of fire by establishing criteria for building, processing, design, service, and installation around the world. NFPA Standard 1221 covers the installation, maintenance, and use of emergency services communications systems and contains specific requirements for dispatch alerting methods to be deployed by fire departments to ensure both effectiveness and reliability.
The City’s current fire station alerting system is exceeding its useful life, contains equipment that is 15-30 years old, is based upon older technology, and is not consistent with the standards set by NFPA Standard 1221. As a result, the Corona Fire Department received a lower score on the “Credit for Dispatch Circuits” in the 2016 Insurance Services Office (ISO) Fire Department Insurance Rating.
A key component in the ISO Rating is rapid and redundant pathways for alerting.
To make the needed improvements in this area, Fire Department staff researched available fire alerting systems and identified the USDD as the preferred system. This system was chosen because it provides redundant, dual pathway alerting, a flexible and modular system design, offers future system enhancements, mobile device alerting, and robust technical support. The USDD system has the ability to failover automatically to a redundant network and a backup radio alerting system to ensure multiple fail-safes. The USDD System is fully integrated and will provide full automation of dispatching. The USDD System is also compatible with the new City of Ontario dispatch system, which the City will transition to in September 2022, and must be installed prior to the cutover to the new system. In May 2019, the City Council approved the purchase of the USDD System equipment.
The City then worked to complete construction plans and bid documents necessary for the installation of the fire alerting system.
ANALYSIS:
Notice Inviting Bids (NIB) 22-068CA for this Project was issued and posted on the City’s PlanetBids bidding website on April 13, 2022, and advertised in the Sentinel Weekly on April 13, 2022. A total of 193 prospective bidders were solicited, and one (1) bid was received by the due date and time of May 11, 2022, at 2:00 pm. The results of the bids are as follows:
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File #: 22-0521
Contractor City Total Bid Amount
Scansys, Inc. Buena Park, CA $159,475
The total budget for the project is estimated at $600,000. The equipment portion of the budget came to $439,249. Typically, installation costs are estimated at fifty (50) percent of the cost of the equipment, or $219,625, which equates to $31,375 per station.
The City of Ontario recently awarded a contract in the amount of $225,528 for the installation of a similar fire alerting system for its ten (10) stations. On average, this is $22,553 per station.
The Scansys, Inc. bid amount of $159,475 for the City’s seven (7) fire stations is $22,782 per station.
Although only one bid was received for the project, the cost is reasonable based on the engineer’s estimate and recently awarded contract for the City of Ontario. Awarding of this contract will allow for the completion of the project in conjunction with the changeover to the City of Ontario’s dispatching system. If the contract is not awarded at this time and a new bid is issued, it will not be possible to have the new fire alerting system installed prior to the change to the City of Ontario’s dispatch system.
Staff contacted the prospective vendors that registered to receive the bid documents on the City’s PlanetBids website to determine why they did not submit a bid. Of the two responses received, one firm stated that they did not have the proper license. The Notice Inviting Bids stated that a C-10 Electrical Contractor’s license was required, and the contractor held a C-7 Low Voltage Systems Contractor license. They were advised to submit a question regarding this in the future for consideration of an alternative license. The other firm stated that while it was interested in bidding, it, unfortunately, had a miscommunication on their end and, as a result, did not submit a bid.
City staff reviewed the bid and determined that Scansys, Inc. of Buena Park, CA was the apparent lowest responsive and responsible bidder, with a bid submission of $159,475. City staff contacted Scansys, Inc. regarding the bid and the work to be performed to confirm their experience and work with other municipalities. After reviewing references, Staff recommends that the City Council award the Project to Scansys, Inc. of Buena Park, CA, in an amount not to exceed $159,475.
Staff is requesting approval of a change order limit of 20% or $31,895 for contingency to complete extra work should unforeseen changes are encountered. Some of the fire stations are older buildings which can have challenges. In addition, the Corona Fire Department is utilizing some of the existing equipment at the various fire stations, which may cause unforeseen issues.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
There is an existing Capital Improvement Project titled “Fire Station Alerting Systems,” CIP No. 71660. The current available balance in CIP No. 71660 is $214,057; $106,244 is funded from the General Fund, and $107,813 is funded from the Fire Facilities Development Impact Fee Fund 214.
Funding is sufficient for the recommended action.
ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS:
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File #: 22-0521
This action is categorically exempt pursuant to Section 15301 of the Guidelines for the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which states that the operation, repair, maintenance, permitting, leasing, licensing, or minor alteration of existing public or private structures, facilities, mechanical equipment or topographical features, involving negligible or no expansion of use beyond that existing at the time of the CEQA determination, and is therefore exempt from CEQA. This action involves the installation of an electronic fire alerting system and equipment in existing fire stations (public facilities). Therefore, no environmental analysis is required.
PREPARED BY: TRACY MARTIN, CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECT MANAGER REVIEWED BY: SAVAT KHAMPHOU, PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR
Attachments:
1. Exhibit 1 - Council Agenda Report - May 1, 2019
2. Exhibit 2 - Contract
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