City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: December 17, 2024
Agenda Item: 5.C
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Anuj Gupta, Director of Transportation, Department of Transportation, Transit Maintenance
Subject: Approval of Agreement #11364 Modification with Gillig LLC to Purchase Thirty 40-foot Battery Electric Buses
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 City Manager to negotiate and execute a first modification to agreement #11364 in the amount of $46,800,876 with Gillig, LLC to furnish and deliver up to thirty 40-foot battery electric buses to the Santa Monica Department of Transportation and authorize a notice to proceed to Gillig, LLC in reference to the agreement. This will result in an amended agreement with a new total amount not to exceed $64,948,546, with future year funding contingent on Council budget approval.
Summary
Operating a regional transit system covering more than 69 square miles of the western Los Angeles area serving more than 8.5 million passengers a year, the Big Blue Bus (BBB)—a division of the Santa Monica Department of Transportation (DOT)—is committed to reducing harmful emissions and pursuing the most environmentally sustainable vehicles to provide service to customers and meet the operational needs of the department. In support of that goal, DOT is converting its Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fleet of buses to Zero Emission vehicles. Pursuant to its Fleet Management Plan and Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) guidelines, DOT replaces buses after 12 years in service or 500,000 miles. Staff recommends that buses be replaced on a 2 of 6
one-for-one basis, and 32 CNG buses purchased in 2011 and 2012 are currently due for replacement. To advance efforts to fully transition the Big Blue Bus fleet to zero emission buses by 2030, staff recommends that the City execute a modification to agreement #11364 with Gillig LLC in an amount not to exceed $46,800,876 for the purchase of up to 30 battery electric buses (BEBs), including spare parts, training, and warranty. This will result in a new total amount not to exceed $64,948,546. The award recommendation is based on the competitively bid agreement awarded to Gillig LLC by the State of Washington.
Discussion
To support the City of Santa Monica’s sustainability goals, the Santa Monica Department of Transportation presented a Fleet Composition Study to the City Council in April 2018. Based on the study’s findings, Council reaffirmed its commitment to a full transition to zero emissions by 2030. In support of the City’s sustainability target, DOT has been operating BEBs in its fleet since August 2019, and currently has 19 BEBs in service, with 15 additional BEBs scheduled to be delivered in 2025. In preparation for the adoption of BEBs, DOT has completed a fleet electrification master planning effort that evaluated its service to create a phased implementation plan for the replacement of its CNG-powered buses and the installation of charging infrastructure to power the battery-electric vehicles. This report found that BBB’s service needs can be met with existing BEBs now available on the market.
DOT is also planning for the enhancement of its charging infrastructure. A consultant is finalizing engineering design plans that would provide additional charging infrastructure for up to 104 BEBs, and these phases of the infrastructure master plan are scheduled to begin construction in 2025 and be completed by early 2027. Additionally, DOT has partnered with Southern California Edison (SCE) to ensure that energy will be available for the charging of its BEBs through SCE’s Charge Ready Transport program which provides a rebate for electric bus charging infrastructure. The BEBs in the BBB fleet have performed well, and staff has received positive feedback from Motor Coach Operators who have driven the buses and customers who have ridden on them. Since Gillig vehicles comprise more than 80% of the BBB fleet, parts, maintenance, and 3 of 6
technician familiarity with their buses provide efficiencies and economies of scale for fleet maintenance and warehousing of vehicle parts.
Staff recommends executing a modification to agreement #11364 with Gillig LLC, pursuant to the same base price as set forth in the terms and conditions in the State of Washington’s Transit Bus Invitation for Bid (IFB) dated March 4, 2020, and subsequently executed contract 06719-01 dated April 1, 2021. This procurement authorizes local government agencies outside the State of Washington to purchase electric buses in accordance with the prices listed in Attachment D of the IFB.
Procurement of electric buses using the State of Washington bid would enable the department to meet its goal of timely replacement of vehicles that have reached their twelve-year useful life in accordance with BBB’s fleet replacement plan.
Analysis
Base Price for each BEB (February 2021) 813,044
City and DOT technical requirements 247,165
Delivery 1,898
Pre-tax unit price 1,062,107
PPI Adjustment per WA Contract (2021-2024) 297,822
Current Pre-Tax Unit Price - (1/16/2023) 1,359,929
Applicable taxes 83,509
Total current unit price including taxes 1,443,438
Price for 30 electric buses 43,303,140
Spare Parts 150,000
Training 100,000
Contingency – 7.5% 3,247,736
Total Authorization Requested for Electric Bus Contract 46,800,876 *City and DOT technical requirements include an additional 7th high-voltage battery, Clever Devices hardware/software for the Radio/Computer-Aided Dispatch-Automated Vehicle Location (CAD-AVL) system, Automatic Passenger Counters, Wi-Fi, electric doors, the BBB seating layout, wheelchair restraints, and passenger surveillance systems.
Vendor Selection
Exception to Competitive Bidding
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Staff recommends Gillig LLC to furnish and deliver battery electric transit buses as an exception to competitive bidding per SMMC 2.24.250 (c) This code allows for the City to use a competitive bidding process of another government entity where the goods or services supplied to the City are the “same or better price” as the price obtained by that agency. Here, the State of Washington followed all federal requirements and procedures in connection with its IFB for the delivery of 40-foot electric buses. As a result of this process, Washington determined that four vendors, including Gillig, were qualified to provide electric transit buses and executed contracts with each of the qualified vendors.
DOT staff selected Gillig as the best value for Santa Monica DOT from among the qualified vendors primarily due to the following factors:
Maintainability: Approximately 80% of DOT’s existing fleet are Gillig buses and the BEBs produced by Gillig share 80% of parts and design with 40’ Gillig buses in the existing fleet. As a result, less training is needed to familiarize technicians with Gillig components and Motor Coach Operators with the operation of the vehicle.
History of excellent product support: Gillig is a California-based company headquartered in Livermore, CA. DOT has a positive work history with Gillig buses since 2013, and DOT has received excellent parts and service support for its 19 BEBs.
Technical design, and passenger and community considerations: DOT’s 19 Gillig BEBs have performed well since their deployment in revenue service and are well received by both motor coach operators and passengers. c.
competitive procedures were followed by a governmental agency, federal, state, county, city, joint powers agency, special district, or cooperative purchasing agency and the goods or services are supplied to the City at the same or better price;
Environmental Review
The contract modification award for the purchase of electric replacement buses is categorically exempt from CEQA pursuant to Section 15302 of CEQA. Section 15302 5 of 6
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 electric buses would replace existing CNG buses, with essentially the same purpose and capacity of existing CNG buses. Therefore, the project qualifies for a Class 2 exemption.
Past Council Actions
Meeting Date Description
4/24/2018 BBB Fleet Composition Study
7/24/2018 Purchase of (1) Prototype Gillig Electric Bus 10/22/2019 Purchase of (18) 40’ Gillig Electric Buses
2/28/2023 Purchase of (15) 35’ Gillig Electric Buses
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
Staff seeks authority to appropriate $46,800,876 of Federal Section 5307 reimbursable funds and approve the use of this funding from the BBB Fund to award a contract to Gillig LLC for the purchase of up to thirty 40-foot Battery Electric Buses as follows:
Agreement Modification Request
Agreement # Current Authorized
Amount
FY 2026-27
Request Amount CIP Account #
Total
Agreement
Amount
11364 $18,147,670 $46,800,876 C6004810.689000 $64,948,546 $4,584,834 in Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) Program funds will go toward the purchase of five new battery electric buses. The Section 5307 Funds will be reimbursed by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) as expenses are incurred, which is anticipated to be in FY 2026-27. As such, the revenue will be budgeted during a future biennial budget process. Future year funding is contingent upon Council budget approval.
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Prepared By: David Nanjo, Administrative Analyst
Approved Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. Oaks_Gillig LLC_030624
B. Santa Monica CA (32) 40' BEB Quote
C. Levine_Gillig LLC_030124