City Council
Staff Report
From: City Manager
Report Type: CONSENT CALENDAR
Lead Department: Police
Meeting Date: February 12, 2024
Report #:2401-2545
TITLE
Approval of Contract Number C24188120 with Summit Uniforms, LLC for Five Years for a Maximum Compensation Amount Not-to-Exceed $720,000 ($144,000/yr) for the Purchase of Police, Fire, and Park Ranger Uniforms and Related Equipment; CEQA status - not a project.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends the City Council approve and authorize the City Manager or their designee to approve Contract Number C24188120 with Summit Uniforms, LLC for five years for a maximum compensation amount not-to-exceed $720,000 ($144,000/yr) for the purchase of police, fire, and park ranger uniforms and related equipment.
BACKGROUND
This contract and subsequent blanket purchase order is for collectively supplying police, fire, and park ranger personnel with uniforms and equipment. These supplies include uniforms and, for police staff and park rangers, some equipment worn on the body. For police, this includes ballistic vests, boots, and duty belts along with most of the equipment on the duty belt (except for a firearm and body worn camera). Uniforms require tailoring in some cases. Uniforms and related equipment are essential to maintaining a professional appearance for the community, performing critical duties, and keeping employees and the public safe. Supplying uniforms to employees is also part of the labor agreements.
The Police Department, Fire Department, and Community Services Department purchase uniforms and equipment for their uniformed personnel on a regular ongoing basis. Police staff include uniform police officers, records staff, animal control officers, and community service officers. These departments must buy uniforms for all new employees and replace existing uniforms routinely due to wear. For the police staff, uniforms and ballistic vests are custom-fitted to each officer, which, in most cases, prevents them from being reused or recycled. Ballistic vests, worn by some police and fire staff, have a shelf life requiring them to be replaced every five years.
Uniforms are part of the personal protective equipment (PPE) staff uses to mitigate risk of exposure to common hazards.
With the existing contract’s expiration on December 31, 2023, the City issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) in OpenGov, a public bidding platform. Staff directly notified three local suppliers of inventoried uniforms and duty belt equipment. Staff chose these three potential vendors because of proximity to the City since local services for alterations and fitting are required. The City received a single response from Summit Uniforms, LLC (Summit Uniforms) through the RFP process.
ANALYSIS
The City published an RFP four months ago and 116 registered vendors downloaded the RFP.
Summit Uniforms submitted the only response. Summit Uniforms provides uniforms to local public safety agencies and the United States Postal Service (USPS), Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), local park services, and security services. They have decades of extensive knowledge regarding all ranks of law enforcement and fire departments and understand the needs of other uniformed services. Summit Uniforms has an on-site, full-service tailor shop in San Jose. Palo Alto public safety personnel require a location within driving distance for fittings and uniform pick-up/drop-off.
Solicitation Process
Staff posted an RFP for the project on the OpenGov portal and directly notified three local vendors. Staff posted the solicitation for 31 days and received one proposal. The solicitation closed on October 11, 2023.
Table #1: Summary of Request for Proposal
Proposal Description Public Safety Uniforms/RFP #188120 Proposed Length of Project 60 Months (5 Years)
Number of Vendors Notified 3
Number of Proposal Packages Downloaded 116
Total Days to Respond to Proposal 31
Pre-Proposal Meeting No
Pre-Proposal Meeting Date N/A
Number of Proposals Received 1
Proposal Price Range $144,000 per year
Public Link to Solicitation https://procurement.opengov.com/portal/p alo-alto-ca/projects/58786
When the other two vendors (one in San Mateo County and one in Alameda County) were asked why they did not bid, their reply was they do not inventory and supply the brand of department uniforms specified in the bid. Specifically, the other two local vendors do not carry the same manufacturer specifications as currently worn by City staff. The other products inventoried would effectively have current staff in a different looking uniform from future staff.
It should be noted management staff has been adding less expensive options to the specifications when practical. For example, for day-to-day use, staff is encouraged to use the polyester uniform, which is less expensive to the traditional wool uniform, which provide better personal protection.
Some city uniform specifications include field uniforms (sometimes referred to as tactical dress uniforms or battle dress uniforms) for specific traffic or tactical assignments, paramedic services, or animal control because rips and tears are more common, and those uniforms are less expensive to replace or patch.
The previous City supply contract was with Summit Uniforms (contract #C19172451 from 2018- 20231). Costs, in most cases, have risen since the previous contract. The average increase since 2018 is 17%, which represents 2.83% per year. Bullet proof vests increased 25% from six years ago. Staff recommends the City contract with Summit Uniforms for another five years and staff will continue to evaluate the specifications for less expensive options that provide the required protection and professional image.
FISCAL/RESOURCE IMPACT
This contract was created using existing resources. The ”not-to-exceed" cost of this contract is $144,000 per year across three departments. The Department operating budgets will fund this contract. Should the budget not be available to service this contract, the individual departments will seek a budget change within the normal course of the budgeting cycle, which will include Council authorization. For reference, the cost to outfit a new police officer with uniforms and equipment is approximately $5,300. Each department expects to have an annual expense of:
Police $90,000/yr
Fire $35,000/yr
Community Services (Rangers) $19,000/yr
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
This contract is for purchasing public safety uniforms and equipment and does not involve or impact any stakeholders.
1 City Council, June 25, 2018, Agenda Item #16, Report # 9267 https://portal.laserfiche.com/Portal/Helper/TileData.aspx?repo=r- 704298fc&docID=31124&x=0&y=1&pageNum=1&scale=2474&ro=0&time=1706059333743&showAnn=1&pageID= 612666&search=c1226de1-3a67-491b-8808-6500c782fad6
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
Council action on this item is not a project as defined by CEQA because approval of this contract is a continuing administrative or maintenance activity. CEQA Guidelines section 15378(b)(2).
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A: Contract C24188120 - Summit Uniforms LLC
APPROVED BY:
Andrew Binder, Police Chief