Item Number: 31
City Council / Board of Directors
Written Communications
Meeting of: August 20, 2024
Submitted By:
Doug Mathews, Director of Public Works and Water
Subject:
Purchase of a Vactor 2115-18 Combo Sewer Cleaner
Recommendation:
That the Honorable City Council award Haaker Equipment Company, as the authorized distributor, the piggyback purchase of a Vactor 2115-18 Combo Sewer Cleaner for an amount not to exceed $744,676.50, under Sourcewell Contract #101221-VTR.
Fiscal Impact:
Funds for this expenditure have been appropriated in the Sanitary/Sewer Fund 425 as budgeted in the FY 2024/25 Capital Improvement Project (CIP) budget under account code 4250700-55045-70755. The amount, including delivery, is $744,676.50. The budgeted amount for this project is $800,000.
Strategic Plan Goal:
Goal E – Invest in Infrastructure: Ensuring our community’s wellbeing and sustaining a healthy and livable community by investing in the necessary resources to maintain and improve the City’s infrastructure. The purchase of a Vactor Combo Sewer Cleaner (Vactor) will enhance our ability to effectively clean and maintain the City’s sewer systems, ensuring efficient waste management and reducing the potential for blockages and overflows.
Background:
Public Works staff are responsible for maintaining the City's sewer collection infrastructure, which includes routine operations and maintenance activities. This also involves servicing drainage infrastructure. The proposed Vactor will replace a 2009 Vactor that has been utilized for daily operations over the past fifteen years, and has become increasingly unreliable due to its age, with frequent breakdowns and costly repairs that hinder staff’s ability to maintain the sewer systems efficiently. The new Vactor will 3 7
2 4
enhance staff’s capability to effectively perform these essential tasks and ensure the reliability of maintenance operations for the City’s sewer systems.
In accordance with the City’s latest Sewer System Management Plan (SSMP), the City is required to provide routine maintenance of the sewer collection system to help reduce the potential for blockages and overflows. The City has approximately 437 miles of sewer mains and approximately 121 miles of sewer laterals (27,749 connections), in addition to approximately 622 catch basins, drainage pipes, and parkway drains. Due to the wide range of sewer mains, sewer laterals, catch basins, drainage pipes and parkway drains located throughout the City, it is imperative for the department to have reliable equipment to adequately operate and maintain these systems, and respond to emergency needs.
Discussion:
The proposed Vactor will be utilized by the Sanitary/Sewer Division of Public Works to perform routine operations and maintenance activities. The purchase of this new Vactor unit will help ensure that staff have reliable and operational equipment to support daily operations and maintenance activities, as well as emergency response needs. This new equipment will also increase efficiency with its advanced technology, allowing for faster and more efficient cleaning and maintenance of the sewer systems, which will increase productivity.
The new Vactor unit will be diesel powered. The lead time for Vactors equipped with diesel engines is 3-6 months, and the lead time for those equipped with CNG engines is 18-24 months. Vactors equipped with CNG engines costs $90,000 more compared to those equipped with diesel engines. Additionally, CNG equipped vehicles are not recognized by the California Air Resource Board (CARB) as zero emission vehicles and therefore do not assist us in our Advanced Clean Fleet (ACF) compliance requirements.
The Vactor falls into the ZEV Milestone Group 3, and the earliest compliance of this group is 10% by 2030 and 100% to be zero emission by 2042.
Per the City’s Municipal Code § 2.28.120, Purchasing of Supplies and Equipment through Cooperative Purchasing Agreements, the City may utilize various cooperative purchasing programs to take advantage of volume pricing through Sourcewell. Sourcewell is a public agency that serves as a member-focused cooperative and offers a multitude of cooperatively contracted specialized products and equipment to government entities that cannot be procured from local dealers.
Sourewell’s cooperative contract purchasing leverages the national purchasing power of more than 50,000 member agencies, while also streamlining the required procurement process. As a municipal national contracting agency, Sourcewell establishes and provides nationally leveraged and competitively solicited purchasing contracts under the guidance of the Uniform Municipal Contracting Law. Joint Power law enables members to legally purchase through awarded contracts.
Sourcewell offers its members contract purchasing solutions that are leveraged nationally to enable contracted suppliers and member agencies to work smarter and more efficiently 3 7
2 4
as they do business with each other. Sourcewell does this by establishing a business service alliance between member buyers and contracted suppliers, ensuring a valued and successful national cooperative contract program. The City has utilized the Sourcewell program over the last several years and is extremely satisfied with the results.
The piggyback of the Sourcewell contract fulfills the City’s legal obligations of competitive bidding requirements, thus providing significant savings. Public Works staff, Fleet Maintenance Division, reviewed the specification requirements and quote submitted, and have confirmed that the quote from Haaker Equipment Company meets or exceeds the minimum specification requirements.
Accordingly, staff recommends that the City Council approve the award to Haaker Equipment Company for the piggyback purchase of a Vactor Combo Sewer Cleaner in the amount of $744,676.50.
Staff remains available for any questions the City Council may have.
Attachments: A. Quote from Haaker Equipment Company
B. Sourcewell/NJPA Certificate of Membership
C. Memo & Resolution - NJPA Name Change to Sourcewell
D. Sourcewell Contract #101221-VTR
E. Photo of Vactor