City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: September 26, 2023
Agenda Item: 5.B
1 of 7
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Rick Valte, Public Works Director, Public Works, Fleet Services Subject: Award Purchase Order to Toyota Material Handling Solutions for the Purchase and Delivery of Six Forklifts
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Adopt a finding of Categorical Exemption pursuant to Section 15302 (Replacement or Reconstruction) of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) guidelines.
2. Authorize the Procurement Manager to issue a purchase order with Toyota Material Handling Solutions for the purchase of six electric Toyota Forklifts for the Public Works Department. This recommended award is made as an exception to the competitive bidding process pursuant to Section 2.24.250(b) and is for a total amount not to exceed $527,248.
Summary
The City of Santa Monica’s Public Works Department provides essential services that maintain clean and safe neighborhoods and open spaces for Santa Monica’s residents, visitors, and City staff. These operations rely on vehicles and equipment managed and maintained by the City’s Fleet Management Division. Many of these vehicles are aging past their cost-effective useful lives. To ensure reliable operations, provide uninterrupted service to the community, and reduce downtime, maintenance costs, and emissions, staff recommends purchasing six forklifts for the Public Works Department, which can only be sourced directly from Toyota Material Handling Solutions, as an exception to the competitive bidding process.
2 of 7
Discussion
The Fleet Management Division is responsible for ensuring the City’s diverse fleet of over 800 vehicles and equipment are available, dependable, meet the highest environmental standards for a sustainable fleet, and are safe to operate from acquisition through disposal. The division routinely replaces vehicles that have reached the end of their cost-effective useful lives through the Vehicle Replacement Fund.
In response to the budgetary impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, contributions to the Vehicle Replacement Fund were suspended for the General and Beach Funds, and vehicle replacements were temporarily suspended unless they were necessary for public safety or for the operation of essential City services. The Fleet Management Division has worked together with various City divisions to extend the useful lives of their vehicles as much as possible.
Six forklifts have been identified for replacement. These vehicles are vital to essential operations but have reached or exceeded their cost-effective useful life, incurring maintenance costs of approximately 50% of the original purchase cost over the last two years. Due to their age and use, these vehicles require significant ongoing maintenance and repair costs to remain reliable, safe, and operational.
In Spring of 2024, The California Air Resources Board (CARB) will vote to revise its Mobile Source Strategy, State Implementation Plan, and Sustainable Freight Action Plans to facilitate further zero-emission equipment penetration in the off-road sector.
This means, beginning 2026, that applicable forklifts that are bought or leased will need to be zero-emission, and older, non-compliant models will need to be phased out. Staff anticipates a high demand and limited availability as the effective date of this new requirement approaches. Purchasing these electric forklifts ahead of the CARB changes will allow the City to avoid availability issues and provide higher auction revenue of the current forklifts prior to the auction houses receiving an influx of forklifts as other organizations begin to comply with the new legislation. 3 of 7
With all these factors in mind, staff is recommending the purchase of six electric forklifts for a total amount not to exceed $527,248 as itemized in Table 1. Funding for the replacement of these vehicles is available and was collected over each asset’s useful life.
Table 1. Vehicle Replacement Program: Equipment Purchases Unit # Fund Dept/Division Vendor Description Qty. Extended Price
15678 General PW – Facilities
Maintenance
Toyota Material
Handling Solutions
Toyota Electric Lift
Truck Package 3 1 $109,055
15703 General PW – Fleet
Management
Toyota Material
Handling Solutions
Toyota Electric Lift
Truck Package 1 1 $100,647
16196 General PW – Public Landscape Toyota Material
Handling Solutions
Toyota Electric Lift
Truck Package 2 1 $53,922
General Fund Total 3 $263,624
20212 RRR PW – Resource
Recovery & Recycling
Toyota Material
Handling Solutions
Toyota Electric Lift
Truck Package 3 1 $109,055
RRR Fund Total 1 $109,055
15685 Water PW – Water Resources
– Arcadia
Toyota Material
Handling Solutions
Toyota Electric Lift
Truck Package 1 1 $100,647
16197 Water PW – Water Resources Toyota Material
Handling Solutions
Toyota Electric Lift
Truck Package 2 1 $53,922
Water Fund Total 2 $154,569
Grand Total 6 $527,248
Public Works Department
Facilities Maintenance Division – Custodial Services
The Facilities Maintenance Division relies on their forklift to carry out day-to-day operations that directly support the City’s priority of a Clean and Safe Santa Monica, including:
• To accept and off-load custodial supplies for City Hall and other City locations. • To move pallets of supplies onto trucks to be delivered to other City facilities. • To move pallets of tables and chairs for City events. • To assist custodial staff in moving trash bin locations.
Fleet Management Division
The Fleet Management Division is responsible for procuring and maintaining over 800 of the City’s vehicles and equipment. The forklift assigned to Fleet is used to:
• To lift and move pallets of parts delivered by vendors to their storage location. • To dispose of metal waste from its welder’s shop.
4 of 7
• To move nonfunctioning equipment and/or vehicles to properly dispose of them. • To move parts from the part room to the vehicle that is being worked on. • To lift and install overweight parts such as cylinders for repairs on heavy duty vehicles.
Public Landscape
The Public Landscape Division maintains the City’s parks urban forest, and oceanfront.
Park Maintenance staff provide landscaping and irrigation in 28 parks and nearly 300 medians and open spaces. This division relies heavily on their forklift to:
• To move large parts, including playground equipment, benches, picnic tables, concrete barriers, wood, and other park parts.
• To move pallets of fertilizer, seed, ballfield conditioners, field cork, and palletized parts.
• To occasionally assist the Aquatics, Pier Maintenance, and/or Beach sections with their deliveries.
Resource Recovery and Recycling (RRR)
The RRR Division relies on their forklifts to carry out day-to-day operations that directly support the City’s priority of a Clean and Safe Santa Monica, including:
• To unload and unstack containers from tractor trailers. • To lift recyclable metals over 10 feet into a roll off container. • To load and unload stake bed trucks.
• To lift and rotate bins so they can be assembled.
• To move pallets and items in stock around the yard.
• To prepare Household Hazardous Waste to be picked up for disposal.
Water Resources Division
The City’s Water Resources Division operates and maintains three water treatment facilities and four water storage reservoirs as well as over 200 miles of water distribution mains, 150 miles of sewers, and 60 miles of storm drains throughout the city. Various 5 of 7
service trucks and construction vehicles are used by Water Resources staff to operate and maintain this water and wastewater infrastructure.
These vehicles are also used to carry out day-to-day operations to provide water and wastewater services to the community, which include the following:
• To lift and move pallets of parts delivered by vendors to their storage locations. • To unload totes of chemicals and locate them within the facility. • To load and unload large meters, pipes, valves, and fittings onto utility and stake bed vehicles for work in the field.
Vendor Selection
Exception to Competitive Bidding
Staff recommends Toyota Material Handling Solutions to furnish and deliver six electric forklifts as an exception to competitive bidding per Muni Code 2.24.250(b). Toyota Material Handling Solutions is the sole source authorized dealership of Toyota forklifts, machines, repair, and maintenance parts.
The reliability and durability of these electric forklifts ensure the delivery of a clean and safe City to Santa Monica’s residents and visitors. Toyota Material Handling Solutions provides these electric forklifts with full-service maintenance agreements (Toyota 360 Support Plus 5). This provides the additional advantage of predictable costs with fewer unforeseen out-of-pocket repair bills or expenses and a cost-effective way to maintain the units at optimum functionality.
In an effort to lower future parts, repair, and maintenance costs, Fleet Management aims to standardize its fleet, including these forklifts. Decreasing the variety of vehicle and equipment makes/models also allows Fleet to standardize parts inventory and increase supply availability.
b. When a good or service is copyrighted, patented or only available from one license holder, including, proprietary goods, original equipment manufacturers and/or exclusive distributors.
6 of 7
Environmental Review
The purchase orders for replacement vehicles are categorically exempt from CEQA pursuant to Section 15302 (Replacement or Reconstruction) of the CEQA Guidelines.
Section 15302 exempts Class 2 projects which “consists of replacement or reconstruction of existing structures and facilities where the new structure will be located on the same site as the structure replaced and will have substantially the same purpose and capacity as the structure replaced”. The replacement vehicles would replace existing City fleet vehicles, with essentially the same purpose and capacity.
Therefore, the purchase orders qualify for a Class 2 exemption.
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
Staff seeks authority to approve available funding from the Vehicle Replacement Fund and the SCAQMD Subvention Fund to award a purchase order with Toyota Material Handling Solutions for the purchase and delivery of six electric forklifts in the amount of $527,248.
Purchase Order Request
Vendor FY2023-24
Amount CIP Account # Fund Total Purchase Order Amount
Toyota
Material
Handling
Solutions
$113,653 C7000010.689000.90532 General $113,653
$109,055 C7000010.689000.90535 RRR $109,055
$154,569 C7000010.689000.90534 Water $154,569
$149,971 *C1806910.689000 SCAQMD $149,971
Total $527,248 Total $527,248
*SCAQMD Subvention Fund amount of $149,971 will offset the General Fund total of $263,624 for a new General Fund amount of $113,653
7 of 7
Prepared By: Doris Mejia, Senior Administrative Analyst Approved Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. Oaks Initiative Form - Toyota Material Handling Solutions